Dropdown list loses properties on post back

Hi im trying to mimic the itemdata property from vb6 in asp.net.
On post back it seems to lose all attributes?

Initial Load:
? ddlCustomer.items(2).Attributes("ItemData")
"3"
On Post Back:
? ddlCustomer.items(2).Attributes("ItemData")
Nothing


Any way around this? :wave::sick::afrog:

How are you populating the DDL? Are you repopulating on each page load?

Nope i populate on initial page load and then leave it alone on post backs

Did you Code your DropDownlist population inside

vb Code:

If Not (Page.IsPostBack()) Then
                   'Bind the List Here
                End If

Its not actually bound. we have a routine that takes the dropdown list
and populates it with data from a collection.

as part of this i set
ddlCustomer.items(2).Attributes("ItemData")

Post the other part of code