Binding Selected Value in DropDownListFor with-in for statement

Question

I have a view which allows editing of multiple address items concurrently. Binding of the text box works fine however the drop down list does not recognize the selected value.

My ViewModels are:

public class AddressesViewModel
{
    public List<AddressViewModel> Addresses { get; set; }
}

public class AddressViewModel
{
    public string Street { get; set; }
    public string StateSelected { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> States { get; set; }

    public AddressViewModel()
    {
        this.States = new List<SelectListItem> { 
            new SelectListItem(),
            new SelectListItem { Text = "New Jersey", Value = "NJ"}, 
            new SelectListItem { Text = "New York", Value = "NY"}, 
            new SelectListItem { Text = "Pennsylvania", Value = "PA" },
            new SelectListItem { Text = "Rhode Island", Value = "RI" }
        };
    }
}

my controller action is:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var addressesViewModel = new AddressesViewModel();
    addressesViewModel.Addresses = new List<AddressViewModel>() { 
        new AddressViewModel{
            Street = "some road", 
            StateSelected = "PA"
        },
        new AddressViewModel{
            Street = "some other road", 
            StateSelected = "NJ"
        }
   };

   return View(addressesViewModel);
}

and my view is:

@model HelloWorld.Models.AddressesViewModel


@for (int i = 0; i < Model.Addresses.Count(); i++)
{
    <div class="editor-label">
        @Html.LabelFor(modelItem => Model.Addresses[i].Street)
    </div>
    <div class="editor-field">
        @Html.EditorFor(modelItem => Model.Addresses[i].Street)
    </div>

    <div class="editor-label">
        @Html.LabelFor(modelItem => Model.Addresses[i].StateSelected)
    </div>
    <div class="editor-field">
        @Html.DropDownListFor(modelItem => Model.Addresses[i].StateSelected, Model.Addresses[i].States)
    </div>
}

I tested the view using a single item (bound to AddressViewModel) and it worked fine.

found a few others with the same issue: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8669470/the-selected-item-does-not-display-when-i-use-dropdownlistfor http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2631397/dropdownlistfor-does-not-select-value-if-in-for-loop http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17381635/dropdownlistfor-does-not-select-correct-value-in-a-loop — popdan, Aug 29 '14 at 13:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 29 '14 at 14:22

With help from the links in the comment, I ended up adding a for each to my controller:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var addressesViewModel = new AddressesViewModel();
    addressesViewModel.Addresses = new List<AddressViewModel>() { 
        new AddressViewModel{
            Street = "some road", 
            StateSelected = "PA"
        },
        new AddressViewModel{
            Street = "some other road", 
            StateSelected = "NJ"
        }
   };

        foreach (var item in addressesViewModel.Addresses)
        {
            if (item.StateSelected != null)
            {
                item.States.First(x => x.Value == item.StateSelected).Selected = true;
            }
        }

   return View(addressesViewModel);
}

Binding Selected Value in DropDownListFor with-in for statement

1 Answers1