Can't load a DropDownList with values.

Question

I'm following the NerdDinner tutorial while building my own application.

The tutorial gives this:

public ActionResult Edit(int id) {

Dinner dinner = dinnerRepository.GetDinner(id);

ViewData["Countries"] = new SelectList(PhoneValidator.AllCountries, dinner.Country);

return View(dinner);
}

My code is like this:

public ActionResult Edit(int id)
        {
            Area area = areaRepository.GetArea(id);
            JefeRepository jefe = new JefeRepository();
            ViewData["Jefes"] = new SelectList(jefe.FindAllJefes(), area.Jefe.Nombre);
            return View(area);
        }

The FindAllJefes() returns a IQueryable collection. Right now when I run the application the dropdownlist loads with two items: SeguimientoDocente.Jefe and SeguimientoDocente.Jefe.

It seems it's loading the type and not the actual value I want.\

Thank you for the help!

Edit: I just realized this isn't a bug. The code is doing exactly what I'm telling it to do. What would be the most efficient way of retrieving the name of each Jefe?

Answer 1

Use another constructor for SelectList where you specify which property of SeguimientoDocente should be a value and which property should be displayed as text. Something like:

ViewData["Jefes"] = new SelectList(jefe.FindAllJefes(), "Id", "Name", area.Jefe.Nombre);