creating dropdownlist from ViewData

Question

Does anyone have any idea why the code below doesn't give me any value but instead gives me "System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem"?

If I don't do a foreach but instead substitute the ViewData with this

<%= Html.DropDownList("PersonOnCallCheckBoxList") %>, I get the correct value. Please help.

foreach (var person in ViewData["Person"] as IEnumerable)
{
%>
   <input type="checkbox" value="<%= person %>" /><%= person %><br />
<%
}

Answer 1

Because person is a SelectListItem.

use person.Text to get the displayed text and person.Value to get the backing value

Html.DropDownList is built for working with SelectListItems so it does the right thing, but if you are manually working with the Items you'll have to get the Value and Text yourself.

Answer 2

<% var list = this.ViewData["Persons"] as SelectList;

            foreach (var person in list)
            {
              %>
                  <input id="cbPerson" type="checkbox" value="<%= person.Value %>" />
                  <label for="cbPersonOnCall"><%= person.Text %></label><br />
              <%
            }
          %>