[RESOLVED] Drop down list option disappears

[Webskater]

If I write ...

<asp:ListItem Value="0">--Select Category --</asp:ListItem>

... it creates an <option> in a <select> drop-down list.

To populate the drop-down list I am doing something like this to get the list items from a database:

                conn.Open()
                reader = categoryComm.ExecuteReader()
                categoryList.DataSource = reader
                categoryList.DataValueField = "CategoryID"
                categoryList.DataTextField = "Category"
                categoryList.DataBind()
                reader.Close()

... which works fine. But, when I populate the list from the database it deletes the <asp:ListItem> so it no longer says --Select Category-- at the top of the list. The list only contains the items from the database.

How can I get the --Select Category-- option to stay there?

Thanks for any help.

[techgnome]

It has to be a part of the list that is returned by the data source.

-tg

[Webskater]

Thanks for your reply. But, hoping it wasn't true, I have been ferreting around and found that if you set AppendDataBoundItems to true - you can put your 'heading' category at the top and the data bound items appear beneath.