ddl.SelectedIndex vs ddl.SelectedValue

ehx6 · Dec 30, 2004

ddl.SelectedIndex.ToString () // ?
ddl.SelectedValue // id usually int
ddl.SelectedItem.ToString() // actual value string

Hi , I am reading about drop down list, and was confused about ddl.SelectedIndex vs ddl.SelectedValue
I realize if I want to extract a column id I will use
ddl.SelectedValue
and if I want to extract a column value I will use
ddl.SelectedItem.ToString()

So, what is ddl.SelectedIndex.ToString () and how I can use it in my code thanks
ehx

Veep · Dec 30, 2004

Lets say you have a dropdownList with three items:

Code:

<asp:DropDownList id="ddl1" runat="server">
<asp:ListItem Value="1">Dog</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value="2">Cat</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value="3">Cow</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

The SelectedIndex is a zero based index of your ListItems. In this case Dog's SelectedIndex would be 0. Cat would be 1 and so on. One of the ways to use it in your code is to programmatically select a ListItem based on a condition or database value. Using the example above, if you put some code in your Page_Load like: ddl1.SelectedIndex = 2 then every time the page loaded Cow would be selected. If the first ListItem were a blank space instead of Dog you could determine that a user didn't make a selection by checking for a SelectedIndex of 0.
That's a pretty high level overview but hopefully enough to get you started. Try googling SelectedIndex for some real depth.

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ddl.SelectedIndex vs ddl.SelectedValue

ehx6

IS-IT--Management

Veep

Programmer

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