Alphabetically Ordering a SelectList in MVC

Question

similar example

Problem is my selectlist might have data(plus it's format is something like [Ford IV 200 xyx]) in it which I want to retire(by only displaying records which has a bit value of true in it's 3rd column which is also something I need to figure out how to do), big problem is if the user adds in say another Ford which would now display all the way at the bottom of the drop down it would look very messy and could even be overlooked so any ideas?

p.s. added jquery to the tags in case that was a possible solution to this since I am able to use that in this project.

Edit - For that 3rd column bit value filter here's the solution

Solution 1

thanks to Darin I was able to come up with the slightly modified solution of his which instead lead to me resolving this in the VM like so

List<Reason> reasonList = _db.Reasons.OrderBy(m=>m.Description).ToList();
        ReasonList = new SelectList(reasonList, "Id", "Description");

Solution 2

You could use the OrderBy extension method:

<%: Html.DropDownListFor(
    x => x.ModelId, 
    new SelectList(Model.VehicleModels.OrderBy(x => x.Name), "Id", "Name"), 
    "-- Select a model --"
) %>

Comments

[Myzifer]

slight problem, I think your using LinqToSql where as I'm using edmx as such x.ModelId for me is x.(table name which I'm storing too).(table column name which is actually recording the value) and with doing this or mixing it around there is still a problem with (x => x.Name) as it only has x.(Equals/GetHashCode/GetType/Selected/Text/ToString/Value) and since the table I tested it on only has 2 columns (Id and Description) I assume it is meant to match the column name which is to be ordered in this case Description, just in case I tried x.Text, x.Value and x.Selected and ...

[Myzifer]

all resulted in "DataBinding: 'System.Web.Mvc.SelectListItem' does not contain a property with the name 'Id'." that error.

[Myzifer]

found out another way to do it which was in my viewmodel where I'd made the select list so ( public SelectList [assign random name so for example ModelList] { get; set; } List<[insert table name]> [insert random name for list for example modList] = db.[pluralised inserted table name used just before so if it was Model before it's Models now].OrderBy(x=>x.Description).ToList(); ModelList = new SelectList(modList, "Id" "Description"); where or not this alters how you would of answered the questions I dunno but if you fix the previous commented error or add in detail...

[Myzifer]

regarding this comment to your answer I'll mark your answer as correct

[Myzifer]

I'm guessing you don't get round to checking your old answers so I'll leave this another day before I post up the answer and set it as correct.