Implementing Dropdownlist on Asp.net MVC 3 from viewModel

I’m new to .net and mvc platform, i have so many int fields that stores some dropdownlist values, i’ve created fields int type due to database size so i’m implementing dropdownlist via this method, it works but i don’t know if it’s the correct solution to store text of values on viewmodel here is the sample code:

i’m so sorry for my english, please let me know if you don’t understand anything.

model property.cs

    [Required(ErrorMessage = "Bu alan gereklidir!")]
    [Display(Name = "Şehir"), MaxLength(60)]
    public int City { get; set; }

propertymgmtviewModel

 public Property Property { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<Property> Properties { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Cities
    {
        get
        {
            return new[]
            {
            new SelectListItem { Text="--Select One---", Value = "", Selected=true},
            new SelectListItem { Text="Chicago", Value = "1"},
            new SelectListItem { Text="New York", Value = "2"},
            new SelectListItem { Text="Zimbabwe", Value = "3"},
            };
        }

view for editing view page:

 @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Property.City,
        new SelectList(Model.Cities,"Value","Text"))

displaying values viewpage :

   <td>
   @(item.City != null ?
   Model.Cities.SingleOrDefault(c => c.Value == item.City.ToString()).Text
   : "")

        </td>

Answers:

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Method 1

If I was you, I should use a dictionary key / displayName like this for the SelectList :

one static member (as it is static…) :

static Dictionary<int, string> CitiesDict = new Dictionary<int, string>()
    {
        { -1 , "--Select One---"},
        { 0 ,"Chicago"},
        { 1 ,"New York"},
        { 2 ,"Zimbabwe"},
    };

One Property for the dropdown :

public SelectList Cities { get; set; }

Initialized in constructor like this :

Cities = new SelectList(CitiesDict , "Key", "Value", -1);

Then in the view for editing :

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Property.City, Model.Cities)

And for displaying:

@(CitiesDict.ContainsKey(Model.City) ? CitiesDict[Model.City] : "")

Method 2

I haven’t used Razor syntax yet (still on MVC2), but I believe this part is wrong:

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Property.City,
        new SelectList(Model.Cities,"Value","Text"))

You need to tell the view engine what values to populate the select list with (the value attribute and text associated with the option element), but I don’t know the correct MVC3 syntax to help you fix it. Hopefully someone else can…

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0