Sorting in DropDown List in a simple way using Linq

Sorting dropdown list can be easily done using Linq. In this post I am going to tell how you can sort the dropdown list based on DataTextField and DataValueField using Linq.

Source for dropdown list:

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server">
</asp:DropDownList

DataBase table has columns SortID,Name and Country with following values:

Binding the dropdown list with the datasource

private void populateDataText()
    {
        using (var db = cnn.ConDB())
        {
            var select = from table in db.SortTables
                         select table;
DropDownList1.DataSource = select.OrderBy(item=>item.SortID);
            DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Name";
            DropDownList1.DataValueField = "SortID";
            DropDownList1.DataBind();
        }
    }

In the above code the dropdown list is sorted based on the SortID, when we call the populateDropDown()the dropdown list looks like

If you want to sort the dropdown list based on the Name then call the following

private void populateDataValue()
    {
        using (var db = cnn.ConDB())
        {
            var select = from table in db.SortTables
                         select table;
            DropDownList1.DataSource = select.OrderBy(item => item.Name);
            DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Name";
            DropDownList1.DataValueField = "SortID";
            DropDownList1.DataBind();
        }
    }

The output looks as:

By a simple change in code you can sort based on DataTextField or DataValueField and you can also sort in the descending order by using
select. OrderByDescending (item => item.Name);

Thanks !

Hope this helps.