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You could try to load it in the INIT event, this one fires before page_load. I normally load mine with the page too, but I am not accessing the data until later in the page cycle.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx" rel="ugc">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx</a>
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So I suppose I should try using the onload event for the dropdown?<br />
Would that solve my trying to access the currentindex before the dropdown is even populated problem?
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What is your datasource for the DDL? <br />
<br />
I load mine from a database and if so, you can do a databind in the INIT event.<br />
<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Dim DataSet As SqlDataReader = DataSetObj.getDataReader(&quot;<wbr />spName&quot;)<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ddlName.DataSource = DataSet<br />
<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; If DataSet.HasRows Then<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ddlName.DataBind()<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ddlName.Items.Insert(0, New ListItem(selectString, String.Empty))<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(allOr<wbr />Add) Then<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ddlName.Items.Insert(1, New ListItem(&quot;Select an Item&quot;))<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; End If<br />
<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ddlName.Items(0).Selected = True<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; End If
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Right now my datasource is this<br />
&nbsp; &lt;asp:SqlDataSource ID=&quot;SqlDataSource2&quot; runat=&quot;server&quot; ConnectionString=&quot;&lt;%$ ConnectionStrings:Sterling<wbr />Connection<wbr /> %&gt;&quot;<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ProviderName=&quot;System.Data.<wbr />SqlClient&quot;<wbr /> SelectCommand=&quot;SELECT DISTINCT Categories, &nbsp;charindex(',',categories) FROM PremiumVendors where (charindex(',',categories)<wbr />=0) or (charindex(',',categories)<wbr />IS NULL) ORDER BY Categories&quot;&gt;<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;/asp:SqlDataSource&gt;<br />
I was attaching it just by setting the datasourceid in the dropdownlist definition.
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Thanks for that, I can now access the dropdown in the page_load event and it has already been loaded so I am no longer seeing a -1.
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I am dynamically setting a dropdown current index in the page_load event and then after that I try to use the currentindex in a function that is called from the page_load event, but when looking at the page index in the function it always comes up as -1. I used the immediate window in debug mode in visual studios to look up the dropdown item count and it comes up as 0. Which to me says that the dropdown has not yet been populated with data to even have its currentindex set or looked up yet.<br />
<br />
When does a dropdown list populate with data so that I can use it as I want?<br />
<br />
This was driving me nuts trying to figure what the issue was that was causing the index to always show up as -1 even though I can set the selected index to another number and then the dropdown would show the correct item once the page had completely loaded.
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I am dynamically setting a dropdown current index in the page_load event and then after that I try to use the currentindex in a function that is called from the page_load event, but when looking at the page index in the function it always comes up as -1. I used the immediate window in debug mode in visual studios to look up the dropdown item count and it comes up as 0. Which to me says that the dropdown has not yet been populated with data to even have its currentindex set or looked up yet.

When does a dropdown list populate with data so that I can use it as I want?

This was driving me nuts trying to figure what the issue was that was causing the index to always show up as -1 even though I can set the selected index to another number and then the dropdown would show the correct item once the page had completely loaded.

.net dropdownlist when does it get populated with data?

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