Add listitem to a dropdownlist

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Hello all,

I have been trying to add a list item to the top of the items in my drop down list. The drop down list has a data source binded to it. VS ignores every piece of code that I have written. Here what i have tried so far:

C#

ddlRepUserCreated.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Please choose a user", String.Empty));

My code in the designer:

XML

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlRepUserCreated" runat="server"
                                    DataSourceID="dsRepUserCreated" DataTextField="Expr1" DataValueField="Expr1">
                                    <asp:ListItem>Please choose a user</asp:ListItem>
                                </asp:DropDownList>
                    <asp:SqlDataSource ID="dsRepUserCreated" runat="server"
                        ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:RMA_DBConnectionStringNew %>"
                        SelectCommand="SELECT userFirstName + SPACE(1) + userSurname AS Expr1 FROM RMAUsers">
                    </asp:SqlDataSource>

Even I have a ListItem in the designer, i can not get to have an item in my drop down saying "Please choose a user". I know i can accomplish this by adding this to the database but I do not want to do that. Can you guys please advise how i can add this item? Thanks in advance.

Posted 8-Mar-12 14:25pm

wonder-FOOL

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El_Codero · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08T15:01:00

Hi,

your code does exactly what it should like ;).
you are inserting a new ListItem with an empty string at INDEX 0 of your dropdownlist.

This should work:
ddlRepUserCreated.Items.Add("Please choose a user");

Anyway I would remove your

C#

<asp:ListItem>Please choose a user</asp:ListItem>
                                </asp:DropDownList>

and add it through code (see obove items.Add("")) after retrieving Data from SQL.

EDIT: AppendDataBoundItems="true" is also missing in your Dropdownlist Properties.

Regards

walterhevedeich · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08T15:03:00

Solution 2

Add AppendDataBoundItems="true" on your dropdownlist tag

Posted 8-Mar-12 15:03pm

walterhevedeich

Comments

El_Codero 8-Mar-12 21:30pm

sorry for this, I had the improve solution page opened for a while, didn't see your answer. my 5. Best Regards

Tech Code Freak 9-Mar-12 1:28am

5up!

wonder-FOOL 9-Mar-12 17:43pm

Thank you.