How do I disable a ListItem?

asp.net drop-down-menu listitem
Chuck Le Butt picture Chuck Le Butt · Oct 26, 2010 · Viewed 13.8k times · Source

I've got a DropDownList in ASP.NET that has a ListItem that requires being disabled... but I DON'T mean Enable="False". And I also don't want to disable the entire DropDownList, just one specific ListItem. What I'm talking about is written in HTML as disabled="disabled", like so: 

<option disabled="disabled" value="-1">Disabled Option</option>

Anyone know how to do this in ASP.NET?

Answer

Arnold Zokas picture Arnold Zokas · Oct 26, 2010

Have you tried adding disabled="disabled" on the ListItem element?

<asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="id">
    <asp:ListItem Text="Test" Value="value" disabled="disabled" />
</asp:DropDownList>

Bear in mind that browser compatibility varies: http://www.lattimore.id.au/2005/06/18/disable-options-in-a-select-dropdown-element/

Related questions

Databind ASP.NET List of ListItem to DropDownList issue

I've just come across this bizarre thing that I was expecting to work in a different (logical) way, but it doesn't. Is it a bug or a "feature"? So there's a DropDownList that I'm populating in the codebehind with a …

Read More
ListItems attributes in a DropDownList are lost on postback?

A coworker showed me this: He has a DropDownList and a button on a web page. Here's the code behind: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!IsPostBack) { ListItem item = new ListItem("1"); item.Attributes.Add("title", "A"); ListItem …

Read More
Get attribute from DropdownList SelectedItem

I have a dropdownlist where I need to store more data than the standard list item allows. The approach I've taken is to add an attribute to each of the listitems. I monitor for changes and can return the SelectedIndex, …

Read More