Add an Additional Item To a Databound DropDownList Control in ASP.NET

In ASP.NET 2.0 and onwards things are much easier. The DropDownList control and other list controls now have a AppendDataBoundItems (7) property. With this property set to true, a call to DataBind leaves all existing items in the list. That allows you to add the extra items declaratively in the markup:

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server"
            AppendDataBoundItems="true">
  <asp:ListItem Value="">Please select a country</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

That’s it. No more messing around with code in the code behind to add the item. Just set AppendDataBoundItems to true and the manually added item stays where it was.