This is my VM

    public class CountriesViewModel
    {
        public string CurrentCountry { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<Country> Countries { get; set; }
    }

With my Controller

    public class FiltersController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult _ShipToCountry(IEnumerable<Country> countries,
                                           string currentCountry = "AE")
        {
            var viewModel = new CountriesViewModel
            {
                Countries = countries.OrderBy(x => x.Name),
                CurrentCountry = currentCountry
            };

            return PartialView(viewModel);
        }
    }

And finally the View

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.Countries,
                      new SelectList(Model.Countries.ToList(),
                                     "Code", "Name", Model.CurrentCountry))

Where Model.CurrentCountry is the Code.

The DDL is rendered correctly

...
<option value="UA">Ukraine</option>
<option value="AE">United Arab Emirates</option>
<option value="UK">United Kingdom</option>
....

But no Country gets selected, what am I missing?

• asp.net-mvc-3
• ddl
• selectedvalue

You should set CurrentCountry prop to expression if not also you cannot get the selected country on form submit.

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.CurrentCountry,
                      new SelectList(Model.Countries.ToList(), "Code", "Name"))

This worked...

Instead of

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.Countries,
                      new SelectList(Model.Countries.ToList(), 
                                     "Code", "Name", Model.CurrentCountry))

Used

@Html.DropDownList(Model.CurrentCountry,
                   new SelectList(Model.Countries.ToList(),
                                  "Code", "Name", Model.CurrentCountry))