Passing value from database to view in DropDownList in ASP.net mvc 4

Question

I have a Controller and I am taking an object of database and passing it to view. Here is the action method for it

public ActionResult NewRequest(Bookinfo bookinfo)
    {

        using (var db = new Database1Entities1())
        {
            return View(db.Bookinfoes.ToList());
        }

    }

And here is my view method

 @model IEnumerable<MvcApplication.Models.Bookinfo>
@{
ViewBag.Title = "NewRequest";
}

<h2>NewRequest</h2>

<table>
@foreach (var item in Model)
{
<tr>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Bookname)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Authorname)
        </td>
        <td>
            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Publishername)
        </td>
  <td> </td>
  </tr>

 }
</table>

As you can see that I am able to display the data normally but i want to display the data in drop downlist. Also I want to select an item from dropdownlist and take its value so that i can manipulate it How can I do it??? Sorry if this seems to be a simple question. i have just started learning asp.net mvc4

Here is the book info model

namespace MvcApplication.Models
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public partial class Bookinfo
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Bookname { get; set; }
    public string Authorname { get; set; }
    public string Publishername { get; set; }
}
 }

Answer 1

DropDownList helper will make your drop down list. All you have to do is to build your SelectList dropdownlist content. You can try this :

  // Remove foreach loop

  <tr>
        <td>
            @Html.DropDownList("Bookname", Model.Select(m => new SelectListItem() { Text = m.BookName, Value = m.Bookname} ).ToList())
        </td>
        <td>
             @Html.DropDownList("Authorname", Model.Select(m => new SelectListItem() { Text = m.Authorname, Value = m.Authorname} ).ToList())
        </td>
        <td>
             @Html.DropDownList("Publishername", Model.Select(m => new SelectListItem() { Text = m.Publishername, Value = m.Publishername} ).ToList())
        </td>
  <td> </td>
  </tr>

Answer 2

In controller store the select list into View Bag:

ViewBag.BookinfoId = new SelectList(db.Bookinfoes, "BookinfoId", "BookinfoName");

And in your view Use the ViewBag Name to bind the dropdown :

@Html.DropDownList("BookinfoId", "Select")