Dropdownlist in Mvc 4 with Razor

@{var listItems = new List<ListItem>
    {
          new ListItem { Text = "Exemplo1", Value="Exemplo1" },
          new ListItem { Text = "Exemplo2", Value="Exemplo2" },
          new ListItem { Text = "Exemplo3", Value="Exemplo3" }
    };
    }
        @Html.DropDownList("Exemplo",new SelectList(listItems,"Value","Text"))

You can use this:

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.Tipo, new List<SelectListItem>
    {
                        new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo1", Value="Exemplo1"},
                        new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo2", Value="Exemplo2"},
                        new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo3", Value="Exemplo3"}
    })  

//ViewModel

public class RegisterViewModel
{

    public RegisterViewModel()
    {
        ActionsList = new List<SelectListItem>();
    }

    public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> ActionsList { get; set; }

    public string StudentGrade { get; set; }

  }

//Enum Class:

public enum GradeTypes
{
    A,
    B,
    C,
    D,
    E,
    F,
    G,
    H
}

//Controller Action

 public ActionResult Student()
    {
RegisterViewModel vm = new RegisterViewModel();
IEnumerable<GradeTypes> actionTypes = Enum.GetValues(typeof(GradeTypes))
                                             .Cast<GradeTypes>();
        vm.ActionsList = from action in actionTypes
                         select new SelectListItem
                         {
                             Text = action.ToString(),
                             Value = action.ToString()
                         };
        return View(vm);
    }

//view Action

 <div class="form-group">
                                <label class="col-lg-2 control-label" for="hobies">Student Grade:</label>
                                <div class="col-lg-10">
                                   @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.StudentGrade, Model.ActionsList, new { @class = "form-control" })
                                </div>

Here is the easiest answer:

in your view only just add:

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.tipo, new SelectList(new[]{"Exemplo1",
"Exemplo2", "Exemplo3"}))

OR in your controller add:

var exemploList= new SelectList(new[] { "Exemplo1:", "Exemplo2", "Exemplo3" });
        ViewBag.ExemploList = exemploList;

and your view just add:

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.tipo, (SelectList)ViewBag.ExemploList )

I learned this with Jess Chadwick

Believe me I have tried a lot of options to do that and I have answer here

but I always look for the best practice and the best way I know so far for both front-end and back-end developers is for loop (yes I'm not kidding)

Because when the front-end gives you the UI Pages with dummy data he also added classes and some inline styles on specific select option so its hard to deal with using HtmlHelper

Take look at this :

<select class="input-lg" style="">
    <option value="0" style="color:#ccc !important;">
        Please select the membership name to be searched for
    </option>
    <option value="1">11</option>
    <option value="2">22</option>
    <option value="3">33</option>
    <option value="4">44</option>
</select>

this from the front-end developer so best solution is to use the for loop

fristly create or get your list of data from (...) in the Controller Action and put it in ViewModel, ViewBag or whatever

//This returns object that contain Items and TotalCount
ViewBag.MembershipList = await _membershipAppService.GetAllMemberships();

Secondly in the view do this simple for loop to populate the dropdownlist

<select class="input-lg" name="PrerequisiteMembershipId" id="PrerequisiteMembershipId">
    <option value="" style="color:#ccc !important;">
        Please select the membership name to be searched for
    </option>
    @foreach (var item in ViewBag.MembershipList.Items)
    {
        <option value="@item.Id" @(Model.PrerequisiteMembershipId == item.Id ? "selected" : "")>
            @item.Name
        </option>
    }
</select>

in this way you will not break UI Design, and its simple , easy and more readable

hope this help you even if you did not used razor

Using an array would be a little more efficient than creating a list.

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.Tipo, new SelectListItem[]{
                new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo1", Value="Exemplo1"},
                new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo2", Value="Exemplo2"},
                new SelectListItem() {Text = "Exemplo3", Value="Exemplo3"}})

@{
List<SelectListItem> listItems= new List<SelectListItem>();
listItems.Add(new SelectListItem
    {
      Text = "One",
      Value = "1"
    });
listItems.Add(new SelectListItem
    {
        Text = "Two",
        Value = "2",
    });
listItems.Add(new SelectListItem
    {
        Text = "Three",
        Value = "3"
    });
listItems.Add(new SelectListItem
{
   Text = "Four",
   Value = "4"
});
listItems.Add(new SelectListItem
{
   Text = "Five",
   Value = "5"
});
}
@Html.DropDownList("DDlDemo",new SelectList(listItems,"Value","Text"))

Refer:- Create drop down list in MVC 4 razor example

If you're using ASP.net 5 (MVC 6) or later then you can use the new Tag Helpers for a very nice syntax:

<select asp-for="tipo">
    <option value="Exemplo1">Exemplo1</option>
    <option value="Exemplo2">Exemplo2</option>
    <option value="Exemplo3">Exemplo3</option>
</select>

just use This

public ActionResult LoadCountries()
{
     List<SelectListItem> li = new List<SelectListItem>();
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Select", Value = "0" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "India", Value = "1" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Srilanka", Value = "2" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "China", Value = "3" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Austrila", Value = "4" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "USA", Value = "5" });
     li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "UK", Value = "6" });
     ViewData["country"] = li;
     return View();
}

and in View use following.

 @Html.DropDownList("Country", ViewData["country"] as List<SelectListItem>)

if you want to get data from Dataset and populate these data in a list box then use following code.

List<SelectListItem> li= new List<SelectListItem>();
for (int rows = 0; rows <= ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count - 1; rows++)
{
    li.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = ds.Tables[0].Rows[rows][1].ToString(), Value = ds.Tables[0].Rows[rows][0].ToString() });
}
ViewData["FeedBack"] = li;
return View();

and in view write following code.

@Html.DropDownList("FeedBack", ViewData["FeedBack"] as List<SelectListItem>)

This can also be done like

@model IEnumerable<ItemList>

<select id="dropdowntipo">
    <option value="0">Select Item</option>
    
    @{
      foreach(var item in Model)
      {
        <option value= "@item.Value">@item.DisplayText</option>
      }
    }

</select>