This can be done one of 2 ways. A default ListItem can be added to a DropDownList programmatically with the following syntax after binding data to the DropDownList:

//Code here to populate DropDownList
DropDownListID.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Default text", "Default value")

This will add a ListItem to index 0, which will be the first ListItem.

In .NET 2.0, this can be done declaratively using the AppendDataBoundItems property. This will append all data-bound ListItems to the DropDownList, leaving those you add manually as the first selections.

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownListID" AppendDataBoundItems="true" runat="server">
     <asp:ListItem Text="Default text" Value="Default value" />
</asp:DropDownList>

Hello,

I think you misunderstood a little bit. Well, The Text property means what should be displayed to the user in the dropdownlist, and the value property means - what is the value of that text displayed in the dropdownlist. E.g. Text property could be "SomeText" and value property of that text can be like 1, or anything. The actual property of dropdownlist is "Selected=True".

So, try this one,

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" width="145px">

<asp:ListItem Text="SomeText" Value="SomeValue" Selected="true"></asp:ListItem>

</asp:DropDownList>

You can also cross verify, that Value="Default Value" has no connection with being selected as well as being Default Selected Value at first.

smartkhilit, India

I do not think Ryan misunderstood.  You may have overlooked the part that he is referring to a Databound DropDownList.

When a DropdownList is databound, the  DDL's Items collection is cleared by default before the new items are added.  This would remove any ListItems you had added in the markup.  In the example you have provided, your ListItem (SomeText/SomeValue) will be lost once the DDL is databound.

To prevent ListItems defined in your markup from being removed when databinding, you would need to set the AppendDataBoundItems to True as Ryan had suggested.

Very good, I was looking for this code.

To prevent ListItems defined in your markup from being removed when databinding, you would need to set the AppendDataBoundItems to True as Ryan had suggested.

You did fairly well.

______________________
cat breeds

I think Ryan is right and has given correct soution to the problem.we can do this in either ways.

Hi

We can also add default  list item as below:

Dropdownlist1.Items.Add("0",new ListItem(0,"--Select--"));

Thanks

S.p

S.p:

Dropdownlist1.Items.Add("0",new ListItem(0,"--Select--"));

The Add method does not support those arguments. As noted in Ryans post, to add an item at position zero of the ListItem collection, you would use the Insert method of the ListItemCollection.

if ( Page.IsPostBack)

{

   List.Items.Insert(0,"Default Value");

}

Abhishek

thnak you

that 's great.................

please search microsoft to get the required result

There's really no need to go search anywhere else. For this topic, the correct information is posted up at the top of this FAQ thread.