ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

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ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

You may receive the error "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList." when trying to set a value selected in an ASP.NET Dropdownlist.

This error specifically occurs if you are trying to execute a similar code as follows:-

DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue("3").Selected = true;

(or)

DropDownList1.Items.FindByText("Sports").Selected = true;

This error doesnt occur if you try to use

DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = 3;
or
DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Value = "3"; (Wrong way of implementation. But people use this)

The resolution is that, you just have to mention DropDownList1.ClearSelection(); before using DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue("3").Selected = true;

The correct step is as below:-

DropDownList1.ClearSelection();
DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue("3").Selected = true;

or

DropDownList1.ClearSelection();
DropDownList1.Items.FindByText("Sports").Selected = true;

In my next article I will discuss on the common misconception in making a particular Dropdownlist value selected.

Cheers and Happy Programming !!!

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Print | posted on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 9:00 AM

Comments on this post

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

this info was very useful to me

thanks for ur information

Left by john michel on Feb 27, 2007 11:05 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

cheers been bugging me that one!

Left by Lee Stevens on Mar 01, 2007 3:58 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

That solved a baffling error for me. Thanks!

Left by Bill Kuhn on Mar 09, 2007 9:09 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks!!! You saved a food few hours!!!!

Left by Ramy on Nov 28, 2007 8:09 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks,
We searched for that problem on Google and found at top. Nice Solution.
Good work,
Keep it up :)

Left by Shail on Dec 12, 2007 1:41 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

This article was very useful to me and it is easily understandable

Left by Praveena on Dec 17, 2007 5:20 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Nice one. Saved my time. Cheers mate.

Left by Hitz on Feb 13, 2008 9:58 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks. It helped me a lot.

Regards,
Shaik.

Left by Shaik on Feb 18, 2008 6:12 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks..... i got an idea ....but what about it comes in master page not using FindByValue or text

Left by Sankar on Feb 25, 2008 4:22 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Ekdam Rapchik ha!

Left by Eknath on Feb 28, 2008 4:24 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Straight forward solution thnx

Left by Sfinx on Mar 10, 2008 3:04 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks For The Help!! God Bless!

Left by rishian on Apr 02, 2008 4:48 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks very much for the solution!

Left by carlos on May 05, 2008 4:19 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks for the help

Left by abhishek on May 08, 2008 10:56 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

i had spend almost 3-4 hours to this error. After that the solution you had given, solved my problem
Thank you very much

Left by Ravi Gupta on May 09, 2008 5:07 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

tnks you saved some debugging ours for me!!

Left by Ashberger on May 22, 2008 7:57 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank you so much..this is really useful.....

Left by Kalaravi on Jun 20, 2008 12:43 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks a lot nice solution

Left by sivaani on Jun 30, 2008 9:56 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

this saved a lot of time for me !!! nice post

Left by Subhash on Jul 07, 2008 5:41 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

got my problem solved in seconds.

Left by Ashish on Jul 15, 2008 8:26 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thank for good article

Left by chan myie on Jul 29, 2008 7:43 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank you,got my problem solved in seconds.

Left by Sunitha on Aug 10, 2008 4:38 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank you very much

Left by Shailesh on Aug 27, 2008 12:33 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks a lot for the information. It was very useful!

Left by Pradeep on Sep 20, 2008 4:39 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks a lot. This is a great piece of information.

Left by Mohit on Oct 05, 2008 10:22 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank u it helped me...

Left by NIkeeta on Oct 30, 2008 6:36 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thnx, very useful as well! :o)

Left by Larrr on Nov 03, 2008 2:48 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

I tried this.. but i am getting another Error:

Object reference Not set to an instance of an Object

Pls help

Left by Naved on Nov 04, 2008 12:13 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

haa.. thank u... saved a lot of time...in debugging..

Left by kaaki on Nov 06, 2008 1:39 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

To avoid "Object reference Not set to an instance of an Object":

DropDownList1.ClearSelection()

dim li as listitem = DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue(3)

if li isnot nothing then
li.selected = true
end if

Left by Just a VB Guy on Nov 22, 2008 1:58 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Hi
Another possibility is that you are using the same listItem instance multiple times. In my code I was declaring one ListItem:

ListItem listItemSelect = new ListItem("Select", "0");

and adding this to multiple dynamicly created dropdowns. If no selection is made on more than one dropwdown and the page is posted back, and you re-create the dropdowns then the listitem above is the selected item for those dropdowns - thus causing the same error.

So you don't necessarily have to clear the selection - first ensure you're not using the same listitem in multiple dropdowns.

Left by MarkJaL on Nov 26, 2008 5:18 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Fantastic!!

Worked a treat, thanks!!

Left by Cheryl on Dec 11, 2008 3:26 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

This article greatly solved the problem which I was facing. Thanks a lot

Left by Vijaycanaan on Dec 12, 2008 12:51 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

A gr8 help for me!!!!! Thanks

Left by Snehal on Jan 16, 2009 4:18 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thansk a lot it saved me a lot of time

Left by Rama charan on Jan 20, 2009 4:54 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Didn't work for me until I read the comment posted by MarkJal. Was using the same listItem instance in multiple dropdowns. Very helpful.

Thanks, saved me a lot of time and trouble.

Left by erwin on Feb 05, 2009 5:12 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank u so much :) it solved my problem i was struggling with too long. Yes it was a top link on google. Thanks again

Left by Gurdeep Singh on Apr 13, 2009 10:00 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank u so much :) it solved my problem i was struggling with too long. Yes it was a top link on google. Thanks again

Left by Sandeep Tanwer on Apr 15, 2009 9:56 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

U R D Man! Thanks!

Left by Gowtham on Apr 24, 2009 2:51 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Strangely, this did not fix the problem for me:

The code I am using is:

ddState.ClearSelection();
ddState.Items.FindByValue("NM").Selected=true;

Thanks,
Dave

Left by Dave on May 01, 2009 2:44 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

I found the solution for my delimna:

http://sebastienlachance.com/2008/03/08/cannot-have-multiple-items-selected-in-a-dropdownlist/

Left by Dave on May 01, 2009 2:46 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Hey thanks man..that was a great help for me.

Left by Aalap on May 06, 2009 12:03 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

MarkJaL!!! Thank you :D

Left by Lo0 on May 27, 2009 4:17 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

God bless you, thank you. it was mosthelpful

Left by Manesti on Jun 01, 2009 5:39 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

I followed the above, and still had the problem. Turned out that the issues was because of the way I was adding an additional item to the databound dropdown.

.Insert will always give you this error in this situation. Instead use .Add to add additional ListItem. In 2.o you can leverage property AppendDataBoundItems="true"

Left by PC on Jun 03, 2009 2:20 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Harish Ranganathan

Left by Harish Ranganathan on Jun 30, 2009 1:57 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

it's v good .it' was a great help for me.

Left by saravanan on Aug 03, 2009 6:41 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks man... it was really helpful

Left by Steel on Aug 05, 2009 11:10 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks dude, i had to play with the idea a bit ...

For all who didnt find it helpful - yet - please remember to change your code to

dropdownlist1.Items.FindByText(*TextHere*).selected = true;

Left by Paul van Tonder on Aug 17, 2009 5:57 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks MarkJaL. I was using same instance in multiple drop downs. I didn't need to clear. I just make new instance and it worked

Left by Rahzam on Aug 23, 2009 3:25 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

i got my solution. thanks

Left by liki on Sep 03, 2009 6:36 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Ah, that worked - thanks a lot : )

Left by Phillip Quinlan on Sep 10, 2009 3:47 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Very Thanks Man.........Please Continue this way

Left by Ram on Sep 17, 2009 12:23 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Its a good article indeed, very precise. I am facing a different problem with this error message. I am having a javascript calender control, and this error is showing on that control.
Can someone please suggest a possible solution.
Thx.

Left by Leo 26 on Sep 29, 2009 11:43 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

it is very helpful for me.
Thx

Left by sandeep kumar trivedi on Sep 30, 2009 9:33 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thnks helped lot

Left by DD on Oct 13, 2009 7:23 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Gr8 stuff. been struggling with this for a day.

Left by Gangatha on Nov 10, 2009 6:50 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Great! You Save my day!!

One question why this:

DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = 3;
or
DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Value = "3";

Are wrong solutions???

Left by Kike on Nov 12, 2009 4:15 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Excellent Tut.
God bless.

Left by Suraj on Nov 19, 2009 12:22 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks for ur information

Left by raj on Nov 20, 2009 2:41 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Hi,
this grate solution......

Left by manjeev on Dec 11, 2009 2:33 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks!!! I am comming from a VB Winforms/MS Access with VBA background and am trying to get the same functionality with ASP.NET and VB.... and it's been a tough transition. Believe it or not this was driving me crazy!!! Any other new ASP.NET VB programmers out there!? Get back to me at unicompgm@gmail.com.

Left by Mike in Los Angeles on Dec 24, 2009 1:00 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks help me a lot!

Left by whole life insurance on Jan 27, 2010 6:24 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

gr8....article with precise explanation
thnx a ton

Left by vaibhav on Feb 05, 2010 8:26 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Nice article,
it saved my time i have been wandering for 1/2 hr to get rid of this error . i couldn't find the location of the error compiler is showing error at wrong location.

Once again, Thanks for the Solution.

Regards, SunilWise

Left by SunilWise on Feb 11, 2010 9:31 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

GREAT!
dropdownlist1.ClearSelection()

Left by Sarmad on Feb 16, 2010 5:46 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

nice guy

Left by dg on Feb 19, 2010 9:31 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks. It seems simple but u save me a lot.

Left by d on Apr 19, 2010 11:13 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Wow!!!, Thank you sooo much!!, i was breaking my head with this and i can't belive that it solved with a so simple solution.

Your awesome!.

Left by Ramon Vargas on Apr 23, 2010 8:18 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks. It helped me a lot.

Regards,
Anand

Left by Anand on Apr 29, 2010 6:21 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks it helped a lot.

Left by Aalap on May 03, 2010 9:06 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Perfect. Thanks!

Left by Steve on May 14, 2010 3:31 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

I have had this issue too, thanks for the views.

Left by Ediscounts on May 23, 2010 10:23 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

AL ZAYIFLA

Left by meksika biberi zayÄ±flama hapÄ± on May 31, 2010 11:29 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

very very good, congratulations... tranks

Left by cesar on Jun 16, 2010 1:51 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

this code is perfect, and it helps me a lot

Left by tamimi on Jun 25, 2010 11:22 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thank you very much
save my time

Left by nikes on Jun 29, 2010 10:54 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

I have spent hours to figure out the solution error and there it is. I didn't know that it would be so simple.
Thanks.

Left by anonymous on Jul 22, 2010 6:51 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

This is not the correct solution (for a composite control)!

{
this.EnsureChildControls();

this.categoryDropDownList.SelectedIndex =
this.categoryDropDownList.Items.IndexOf(
this.categoryDropDownList.Items.FindByValue(
value.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)));
}

Left by eb on Aug 01, 2010 8:57 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks. Helped a lot.

Left by Raj on Aug 05, 2010 4:05 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thank u dude

Left by naveen on Sep 08, 2010 1:49 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks dude this article helped me a lot to solve an issue in my project..

Left by Pradeep Chowdary on Sep 20, 2010 8:31 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks a bunch man

Left by Royston on Oct 27, 2010 12:16 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Many Thanks , saved lot of my efforts in troubleshooting the problem.

Left by ritesh on Oct 29, 2010 3:49 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks, very helpful

Left by tomcat on Dec 17, 2010 3:30 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

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Left by alianças on Feb 13, 2011 11:54 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

When u use same list item to populate say for example 3 dropdowns. the end result will put u in sudden shock. It just resets the selected index of other dropdowns when u are working with different dropdowns.

The above solution wont work in this scenario. TO overcome you can use something like ths:
dropdown1.items.add(new listitem("A"));
dropdown2.items.add(new listitem("b"));
dropdown3.items.add(new listitem("c"));

Left by Naved on Mar 29, 2011 11:01 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

DropDownList1.ClearSelection()-- it worked. Thanks

Left by Nitin on May 29, 2011 2:58 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

This Article helped me.. thanks

Left by Jed on Jul 22, 2011 9:25 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

It is very helpful . It worked for me.

Left by Vishal V. Dhabade on Aug 23, 2011 9:55 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

thanks man u saved my job........

Left by ravi on Oct 06, 2011 12:32 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks man that was a wonderful snippet....i didnt know about this findby value i was using Foreach loop (facepalm) and getting this error. thanks again

Left by Kamran on Oct 07, 2011 2:24 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thank Q, very much it helped me lot

Left by Srinivasu on Mar 02, 2013 10:21 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks buddy this is working.

Left by santosh panchal on Sep 25, 2013 2:10 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Muchas gracias me sirvió de mucho tu ayuda.

Left by nn on Jul 31, 2014 1:39 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

great! Thanks a lot it saved time

Left by Qasim Rafi on Aug 14, 2014 2:48 PM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Many Many Thnx MarkJaL.Your solution and description for why it is happened ... for the error "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList." is working fine and understandable.Again thanx for your valuable solution.

Left by Gayatri Prasad Das on Sep 17, 2014 10:38 AM

# re: ASP.NET Dropdownlist - "Cannot have multiple items selected in a DropDownList."

Thanks for sharing a good thought, the article is fastidious, that is why I have read it entirely. Download Cbse Ip Projects

Left by Johny Sharma on Jul 12, 2016 5:19 PM

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