Dropdownlist with duplicate values

[JasonNevin]

Good morning

I've just found out that the value field in a DropDownList must be unique. In which case does anybody know of a way of dealing with duplicate values? I want to be able to select from a long list which automatically assigns my selection a score.

i.e Red=0,Blue=1,Green=0,Yellow=0,Orange=1.

If you code this using a normal dropdownlist and select Green the value Red is actually selected because the value is used to select the item. Anyone got a workaround?

 

[ca8msm]

Why don't you just set the value to the actual text and do your validation based on the text? e.g.

    Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        'Put user code to initialize the page here

        If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
            Dim li As ListItem

            li = New ListItem
            li.Text = "Red"
            li.Value = "Red"
            DropDownList1.Items.Add(li)

            li = New ListItem
            li.Text = "Green"
            li.Value = "Green"
            DropDownList1.Items.Add(li)

            li = New ListItem
            li.Text = "Blue"
            li.Value = "Blue"
            DropDownList1.Items.Add(li)
        End If

    End Sub

    Private Sub DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles DropDownList1.SelectedIndexChanged

        Select Case DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Value

            Case "Red", "Green"
                ' Do something

            Case "Blue"
                ' Do something else

        End Select
    End Sub

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[JasonNevin]

Sorry, I should have explained a bit more. I'm readling the values from a database table so hard-coding anything is not really an option.

 

[ca8msm]

How about just appending the value onto the end of the text then. e.g

Text = Red Value = Red_0
Text = Green Value = Green_0
Text = Blue Value = Blue_1


____________________________________________________________

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[JasonNevin]

Yeah that'd work. Good man.

 

[jbenson001]

Why don't you have a column in your table called value or score that holds the value you want to assign to that color? Then assign that column to the drop down's value column.

Jim

 

[JasonNevin]

jbenson001

I already have that column. It contains the duplicate values I've spoken about. I could use it to lookup after the postback but it means two DB reads. ca8msm's method only requires one DB read.

Thanks.

 

[jbenson001]

Ahh sorry, I missed that you had already gotten those values...

Jim