C# – How to bind an Enum to a DropDownList control in ASP.NET

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Let's say I have the following simple enum:

enum Response
{
    Yes = 1,
    No = 2,
    Maybe = 3
}

How can I bind this enum to a DropDownList control so that the descriptions are displayed in the list as well as retrieve the associated numeric value (1,2,3) once an option has been selected?

Best Answer

I probably wouldn't bind the data as it's an enum, and it won't change after compile time (unless I'm having one of those stoopid moments).

Better just to iterate through the enum:

Dim itemValues As Array = System.Enum.GetValues(GetType(Response))
Dim itemNames As Array = System.Enum.GetNames(GetType(Response))

For i As Integer = 0 To itemNames.Length - 1
    Dim item As New ListItem(itemNames(i), itemValues(i))
    dropdownlist.Items.Add(item)
Next

Or the same in C#

Array itemValues = System.Enum.GetValues(typeof(Response));
Array itemNames = System.Enum.GetNames(typeof(Response));

for (int i = 0; i <= itemNames.Length - 1 ; i++) {
    ListItem item = new ListItem(itemNames[i], itemValues[i]);
    dropdownlist.Items.Add(item);
}

Related Solutions

C# – How to sort a dictionary by value

Use LINQ:

Dictionary<string, int> myDict = new Dictionary<string, int>();
myDict.Add("one", 1);
myDict.Add("four", 4);
myDict.Add("two", 2);
myDict.Add("three", 3);

var sortedDict = from entry in myDict orderby entry.Value ascending select entry;

This would also allow for great flexibility in that you can select the top 10, 20 10%, etc. Or if you are using your word frequency index for type-ahead, you could also include StartsWith clause as well.

C# – How to cast int to enum

From an int:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)yourInt;

From a string:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum) Enum.Parse(typeof(YourEnum), yourString);

// The foo.ToString().Contains(",") check is necessary for enumerations marked with an [Flags] attribute
if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(YourEnum), foo) && !foo.ToString().Contains(","))
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException($"{yourString} is not an underlying value of the YourEnum enumeration.")
}

Update:

From number you can also

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)Enum.ToObject(typeof(YourEnum) , yourInt);

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – How to sort a dictionary by value

C# – How to cast int to enum

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