Setting SelectedListItem property Selected to false isn't working

Question

i have a model called QA in this model I have a foreign key SectionId. when creating a QA the SectionId gets and Id of a Section called "Unclassified" as shown

         public async Task<IActionResult> Create(CreateQAViewModel qA)
    {
 var qa = mapper.Map<QA>(qA);
 qa.SectionId = UnclassifiedIds.UnClassifiedSectionId;
 qa.CaseNumber = Randomizer.GetAUniqueString(qaS.Select(q => q.CaseNumber).ToList(), 
 (int)Num(qa), true);
    // code

after the QA is registered an admin answers the Question and moves the QA to the right section so I created a service that gives an IEnumerable< SelectListItem > as shown

 public async Task<IEnumerable<SelectListItem>> GetSectionsIdAsync()
    {
        var SectionsLists = await uoW.SectionsRepository.GetAllSectionsAsync();

        return SectionsLists.Select(vl => new SelectListItem
        {
            Text = vl.Title.ToString(),
            Value = vl.Id.ToString(),
        Selected = false

        }).Distinct();
    }

i injected this service to the view as shown:

@inject ISelectServices service

    <div class="form-control">
        <select asp-for="SectionId" asp-items="@await service.GetSectionsIdAsync()" class="form-select">

            <option selected="selected" value="">
                please choose a section
            </option>
        </select>
        <span asp-validation-for="SectionId" class="text-danger"></span>
    </div>

The option I want to be shown to the user is the " please choose a section" but it keeps showing "Unclassified" cuz it's the current value of the item (qa). as shown above I already set the property selected to false in the SelectListItems and used the attribute selected="selected" in the view but it still shows "Unclassifed". How can I make it always show the option please choose a section?

Answer 1

You need to add an empty value to SectionsLists

public async Task<IEnumerable<SelectListItem>> GetSectionsIdAsync()
{
    var SectionsLists = await uoW.SectionsRepository.GetAllSectionsAsync();

    var retval = SectionsLists.Select(vl => new SelectListItem
    {
        Text = vl.Title.ToString(),
        Value = vl.Id.ToString(),
        Selected = false
    }).Distinct();

    retval.Insert(0, new SelectListItem
    {
        Text = "please choose a section",
        Value = string.Empty
    }

    return retval;
}