How to populate a dropdown list in asp.net from a DB table? - asp.net

Question

I want to populate a dropdown list with values from a table I created. I only want to populate the list with one of the fields- the languages in my table. I think I have connected to the data source correctly, but I don't know what I have to do to get the values into the list. I can enter my own values but I'd rather have this automated.
This is what I have so far, but I'm guessing there's more to it than just linking the list to the data source.
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:HBshareIndexConnectionString %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [Web_Metrics] WHERE ([LCID] = #LCID)">
<SelectParameters>
<asp:QueryStringParameter Name="LCID" QueryStringField="LCID" Type="Int32" />
</SelectParameters>
</asp:SqlDataSource>
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Select LCID: " ></asp:Label>
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" Width="150px" runat="server" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" DataTextField="LCID" DataValueField="LCID">
<asp:ListItem>Select LCID...</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
Thanks for the help. I got the dropdown list populated now, but I was wondering how do I actually get the repeater I'm using to display the details of the LCID the person selects? I've seen people talking about page.isPostback but I don't know what that is or if it works with my current setup. I need to somehow get the LCID they selected and then refresh the page to show the details of that LCID. Does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Your problem is that you're trying to define list items and a data source.
If you want to insert a "Select an item.." option, I would suggest prepending it to your resultset (getting it to always be first with a UNION and ORDER BY could be difficult depending on your fields) or inserting it after databinding in your code behind:
Modification to DropDownList1s attributes:
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" Width="150px" runat="server" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" DataTextField="CountryName" DataValueField="LCID" OnDataBound="InsertChooseItem" />
C#:
protected void InsertChooseItem(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ListItem selectOnePlease = new ListItem("Select LCID..", 0);
DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, selectOnePlease);
}
VB:
Protected Sub InsertChooseItem(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim selectOnePlease As New ListItem("Select LCID..", 0)
DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, selectOnePlease)
End Sub

Answer 2

You've specified the select parameter to be a query string, so the data in your DropDownList will only be populated when the URL resembles something like:
http://{Your server name}/Default.aspx?LCID=1
That doesn't make any sense though because the LCID column in your table should be unique, so although this will work there will only be one value in the drop down list.
I think what you want is to display all the languages from the database in the drop down, here's an example:
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="sqlDS" runat="server"
ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:HBshareIndexConnectionString %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT LCID,Language FROM [Web_Metrics]">
</asp:SqlDataSource>
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlLanguages" AppendDataBoundItems="true" Width="150px" runat="server" DataSourceID="sqlDS" DataTextField="Language" DataValueField="LCID">
<asp:ListItem>Select Language</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
Just a note, you should never display the ID to the client, it's totally meaningless to them, the ids are mostly used by developers in the background that's why in the drop down I set the:
DataTextField="Language" (This is the language name visible to the user)
DataValueField="LCID" (Not visible to the user, but useful for any additional processing in code behind)
AppendDataBoundItems="true" - this line of code will keep all the items you've manually added to the drop down, e.g "Select Language" and will append any data bound items e.g from a SQL table