How to Set the Default Value of a DropDownList in an ASP.NET Page

Updated: at 11:17 PM

(Using Membership ObjectDataSource From MSDN Article)

I'm doing a project where I have lots of DropDownList's on a page and want a simple way to set the initial values based on some known value.  The DropDownLists are retrieved using ObjectDataSource but I don't want the first value displayed.  I wrestled some with how to do this using page_load or page_prerender but didn't come up with good solutions.  I did finally
decide that programming the databound event of the dropdownlist was probably the best way to go.

The solution is pasted below.  The MembershipUtilities.MembershipODS c# code can be downloaded from MSDN or on my web site at the following location. 

https://peterkellner.net/2006/01/09/microsoft-aspnet-20-memberrole-management-with-iis/.


<%@ Page Language=”C#” %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN”

“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>


<script runat=”server”>
protected void DropDownListUser_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)


{
    DropDownListUser.SelectedIndex =
      DropDownListUser.Items.IndexOf
      (DropDownListUser.Items.FindByValue(Context.User.Identity.Name));
}


</script>


<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” >
<head runat=”server”>
<title>DropDownList Initialize</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id=”form1″ runat=”server”>
<div>
<asp:DropDownList ID=”DropDownListUser” runat=”server”
DataSourceID=”ObjectDataSourceUser”
DataTextField=”UserName” DataValueField=”UserName”
OnDataBound=”DropDownListUser_DataBound”>
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID=”ObjectDataSourceUser” runat=”server”
SelectMethod=”GetMembers”
TypeName=”MembershipUtilities.MembershipUserODS”>
<SelectParameters>
<asp:Parameter Name=”sortData” Type=”String” />
</SelectParameters>
</asp:ObjectDataSource>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>