Implementing Html.DropDownListFor() in View Only - asp.net

Question

I am completely new to Asp.Net (junior dev). I'm working on a project that requires a customer to enter data to be stored in a database. When I created the template view for the model, I get a EditorFor() textbox for the customer to enter data. Here's what it looked like:
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.ApplicantState, htmlAttributes: new { #class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.ApplicantState, new { htmlAttributes = new { #class = "form-control" } })
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ApplicantState, "", new { #class = "text-danger" })
</div>
</div>
This works great, except I want the user to choose from a drop-down list of options rather than enter the data themselves. Here's what I want to do if I were doing the dropdown list with straight HTML:
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.ApplicantState, htmlAttributes: new { #class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
<select id="applicantState">
<option disabled selected value> -- Please Select -- </option>
<option value="OH">Ohio</option>
<option value="CA">California</option>
<option value="TX">Texas</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
I need to get this data to store in the ApplicantState field in the model. The senior developer running this project does NOT want me to add code to the model or controller to do this; he wants me to do the drop-down list in the view only.
Here's what I have...
<div class="form-group">
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.ApplicantState, htmlAttributes: new { #class = "control-label col-md-2" })
<div class="col-md-10">
#Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.ApplicantState, new List<SelectListItem> {
new SelectListItem { Value = "" , Text = " -- Please Select -- " },
new SelectListItem { Value = "OH", Text = "Ohio"},
new SelectListItem { Value = "CA", Text = "California"},
new SelectListItem { Value = "TX", Text = "Texas"}
})
</div>
</div>
The code is compiling and I'm not getting any errors. For anyone who's done this before, does this look correct? Will the dropdown list option be stored in the ApplicantState field? I have no confidence in what I've written. I've only ever done a dropdown list from a MVC controller. I'm not yet able to test the code by submitting a fake application. The view is popping up correctly though. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Because of this:
The senior developer running this project does NOT want me to add code to the model or controller to do this; he wants me to do the drop-down list in the view only.
You need to instantiate at the top of your Razor view this dictionary:
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "OH", "Ohio"},
{ "CA", "California"},
{ "TX", "Texas"}
};
Then replace your razor code with this:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ApplicantState, dictionary.Select(d => new SelectListItem { Value = d.Key, Text = d.Value }).ToList(), " -- Please Select -- ");
This is clean and should work. After that you need to tell to your co-worker that the dictionary which keep the data should belong to your model and the code should go there.