help with populating dropdownlist in datalist

[arctic_bug]

Hi!
i just don't know how to do this. can anyone help me, please.

i'm trying to populate dropdownlist which is in datalist. Data should come from sql database. Here is the dropdownlist:

<asp:DropDownList ID="dropList" Runat="server" DataTextField="place_name" DataValueField="place_id"></asp:DropDownList>

and here is what i have tried:

Sub BindData(ByVal intCompany_id As Integer)
        Dim sqlConnStr As String = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("ConnectionString")
        Dim sqlConn As New SqlConnection(sqlConnStr)
        Dim sqlSelect As String = "SELECT * FROM Places WHERE place_company_id=" & intCompany_id
 
        Dim sqlCmd As SqlCommand
        sqlConn.Open()
        Dim sqlDR As SqlDataReader
 
        sqlCmd = New SqlCommand(sqlSelect, sqlConn)
        sqlDR = sqlCmd.ExecuteReader()
 
        While sqlDR.Read()
            Dim newListItem As New ListItem
            newListItem.Text = sqlDR.Item("place_name")
            newListItem.Value = sqlDR.Item("place_id")
            dropList.Items.Add(newListItem)
        End While
 
 
        sqlConn.Close()
    End Sub

I don't know how to catch the right dropdownlist object in datalist to populate. any ideas? anyone?

Thanks in advance
- Minna