title: How do I get the selected value of a DropDownList in MVC
body: <p>How can I get the selected value from the DropDown in MVC? I want to assign it to a variable.</p>
  
  <p>This is my controller action:</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-c# prettyprint-override"><code>public ActionResult Drop()
  {
      List&lt;SelectListItem&gt; items = new List&lt;SelectListItem&gt;();
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Action", Value = "0" });
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Drama", Value = "1" });
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Comedy", Value = "2" });
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Science Fiction", Value = "3" });
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Horror", Value = "4" });
      items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = "Art", Value = "5"  });
      ViewData["Options"] = items;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is my view:</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-c# prettyprint-override"><code>@Html.DropDownList("Options", ViewData["Options"] as SelectList, "--Select Item--")
  </code></pre>