Hi all,

I have a dropdown list with 4 items in it.  I want to be able to dynamically choose which one is selected without databinding.

I have tried:

For i = 0 To 2
            If cboSD.Items(i).Value = strSchoolType Then cboSD.Items(i).Selected = True
            i = i + 1
        Next

but I get

Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index 

Any thoughts? 

hi,

yo can select by text or by value, try this

cboSD.SelectedIndex = cboSD.Items.IndexOf(cboSD.Items.FinByValue(yourValue));

Or

cboSD.SelectedIndex = cboSD.Items.IndexOf(cboSD.Items.FinByText(yourText));

good luck

why not base the i on the actual number of items:

For i As Integer = 0 To cboSD.Items.Count - 1
    If cboSD.Items(i).Value = strSchoolType Then
        cboSD.Items(i).Selected = True
    End If
Next

make sure strSchoolType  is of type String. also, you're comparing to Value (vs Text)

on the other one it is FindByValue:

DropDownList.SelectedIndex = DropDownList.Items.IndexOf(DropDownList.Items.FindByValue("value"))

turns out that it was just a perverbial blonde moment...

by using the line i=i+1 it was going outside the range. 

thanks for the input! 

that's OK.

bluelinenetworks:

by using the line i=i+1 it was going outside the range. 

as I said, always safer to use a loop based on the number of actual items.

also, you said there were four items but the counter was going up 3 only - unless that was intended.

IF it did help though please mark the post(s). thanks!

the going to 3 was just me trying to test, but you are absolutly spot on about using the items.count - 1 

Ok, this is working with static lists, but not with databound drop downs?

When I step through it, the dropdown.items.count is 0?

I have this in page load and it is not on a post back.... 

Actually, it works on one, but several others....

Just as a note, I have changed it to a linkButton after some research, but same results unless i call dropdown.databind before my code that loads the data and selects the item. 

bluelinenetworks:

Just as a note, I have changed it to a linkButton after some research, but same results unless i call dropdown.databind before my code that loads the data and selects the item. 

:) I really don't mind you unmarking answers - maybe that was a way to get someone to respond to you - although I think you started out with an unbounded DDL as mentioned in the opening post.

anyways, how are you going to get an item count unless it is bounded? makes sense right? DDL.DataBind actually creates those items.

Correct on the databinding, but there are 3 dropdowns that I have.  The one that isnt databound has 3 items that I staticly created.  The other 2 are from DB.

If I do

page.databind 
mySub()

then it works ok, I guess because I am re-binding it?