How do you create a dropdownlist from an enum in A

Question

I'm trying to use the Html.DropDownList extension method but can't figure out how to use it with an enumeration.

Let's say I have an enumeration like this:

public enum ItemTypes
{
    Movie = 1,
    Game = 2,
    Book = 3
}

How do I go about creating a dropdown with these values using the Html.DropDownList extension method?

Or is my best bet to simply create a for loop and create the Html elements manually?

Answer 1

This is Rune & Prise answers altered to use the Enum int value as the ID.

Sample Enum:

public enum ItemTypes
{
    Movie = 1,
    Game = 2,
    Book = 3
}

Extension method:

    public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
    {
        var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                     select new { Id = (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(TEnum), e.ToString()), Name = e.ToString() };

        return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(TEnum), enumObj.ToString()));
    }

Sample of usage:

 <%=  Html.DropDownList("MyEnumList", ItemTypes.Game.ToSelectList()) %>

Remember to Import the namespace containing the Extension method

<%@ Import Namespace="MyNamespace.LocationOfExtensionMethod" %>

Sample of generated HTML:

<select id="MyEnumList" name="MyEnumList">
    <option value="1">Movie</option>
    <option selected="selected" value="2">Game</option>
    <option value="3">Book </option>
</select>

Note that the item that you use to call the ToSelectList on is the selected item.

Answer 2

Building on Simon's answer, a similar approach is to get the Enum values to display from a Resource file, instead of in a description attribute within the Enum itself. This is helpful if your site needs to be rendered in more than one language and if you were to have a specific resource file for Enums, you could go one step further and have just Enum values, in your Enum and reference them from the extension by a convention such as [EnumName]_[EnumValue] - ultimately less typing!

The extension then looks like:

public static IHtmlString EnumDropDownListFor<TModel, TEnum>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> html, Expression<Func<TModel, TEnum>> expression)
{            
    var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, html.ViewData);

    var enumType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(metadata.ModelType) ?? metadata.ModelType;

    var enumValues = Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast<object>();

    var items = from enumValue in enumValues                        
                select new SelectListItem
                {
                    Text = GetResourceValueForEnumValue(enumValue),
                    Value = ((int)enumValue).ToString(),
                    Selected = enumValue.Equals(metadata.Model)
                };


    return html.DropDownListFor(expression, items, string.Empty, null);
}

private static string GetResourceValueForEnumValue<TEnum>(TEnum enumValue)
{
    var key = string.Format("{0}_{1}", enumValue.GetType().Name, enumValue);

    return Enums.ResourceManager.GetString(key) ?? enumValue.ToString();
}

Resources in the Enums.Resx file looking like ItemTypes_Movie : Film

One other thing I like to do is, instead of calling the extension method directly, I'd rather call it with a @Html.EditorFor(x => x.MyProperty), or ideally just have the whole form, in one neat @Html.EditorForModel(). To do this I change the string template to look like this

@using MVCProject.Extensions

@{
    var type = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(ViewData.ModelMetadata.ModelType) ?? ViewData.ModelMetadata.ModelType;

    @(typeof (Enum).IsAssignableFrom(type) ? Html.EnumDropDownListFor(x => x) : Html.TextBoxFor(x => x))
}

If this interests you, I've put a much more detailed answer here on my blog:

http://paulthecyclist.com/2013/05/24/enum-dropdown/

Answer 3

To solve the problem of getting the number instead of text using Prise's extension method.

public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
{
  var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
               select new { ID = (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(TEnum),e.ToString())
                         , Name = e.ToString() };

  return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
}

Answer 4

I ended up creating extention methods to do what is essentially the accept answer here. The last half of the Gist deals with Enum specifically.

https://gist.github.com/3813767

Answer 5

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Type, Enum.GetNames(typeof(Rewards.Models.PropertyType)).Select(e => new SelectListItem { Text = e }))

Answer 6

Here is a better encapsulated solution:

https://www.spicelogic.com/Blog/enum-dropdownlistfor-asp-net-mvc-5

Say here is your model:

Sample Usage:

Generated UI:

And generated HTML

The Helper Extension Source Code snap shot:

You can download the sample project from the link I provided.

EDIT: Here's the code:

public static class EnumEditorHtmlHelper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Creates the DropDown List (HTML Select Element) from LINQ 
    /// Expression where the expression returns an Enum type.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TModel">The type of the model.</typeparam>
    /// <typeparam name="TProperty">The type of the property.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="htmlHelper">The HTML helper.</param>
    /// <param name="expression">The expression.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
        Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression) 
        where TModel : class
    {
        TProperty value = htmlHelper.ViewData.Model == null 
            ? default(TProperty) 
            : expression.Compile()(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model);
        string selected = value == null ? String.Empty : value.ToString();
        return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, createSelectList(expression.ReturnType, selected));
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates the select list.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="enumType">Type of the enum.</param>
    /// <param name="selectedItem">The selected item.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> createSelectList(Type enumType, string selectedItem)
    {
        return (from object item in Enum.GetValues(enumType)
                let fi = enumType.GetField(item.ToString())
                let attribute = fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof (DescriptionAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault()
                let title = attribute == null ? item.ToString() : ((DescriptionAttribute) attribute).Description
                select new SelectListItem
                  {
                      Value = item.ToString(), 
                      Text = title, 
                      Selected = selectedItem == item.ToString()
                  }).ToList();
    }
}