For Binding the Dropdown using Model, we have to follow the following steps:-

Step 1: First create a model as follows:-

Example:

Public Class DropdownBind
{
public List<SelectListItem> lst { get; set; } 
public int selectedItem { get; set; }
}

Step 2: Now in the controller fill the model either by creating an instance of List<SelectListItem> and adding items to it or by getting the values from Database .

For Example:

I Method: Creating an instance of List<SelectListItem> and adding items to it, and finally copying it to the List<SelectListItem> lst of the model.

public ActionResult BindDropDown()
{
List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem> ();

items.Add(new SelectListItem
{
Text = "Item1",
Value= "1"
});

items.Add(new SelectListItem
{
Text = "Item2",
Value= "2"
});

var model = new DropdownBind()
{
lst = items,
selectedItem = 1
};

return View(model);
}

II Method: Getting value from DataBase:

DropdownBind model = new DropdownBind();

model.lst = new SelectList(GetDataFromDataBase(), "Value", "Text"); 

GetDataFromDataBase() function will get the values from database (This is not discussed in this blog) and will bind it to the List<SelectListItem> lst of the model.

Step 3: Now create a strongly typed View for the DropdownBind model by clicking on the BindDropDown() Action Method , this will aotamticaly create the code for the Dropdown in the View page.

Example:

 @Html.DropDownListFor("selectedItem ", Model.lst)

To display the default value we can add a third parameter as follows:

@Html.DropDownListFor("selectedItem ", Model.lst, "--Select Value--")

For postback we can add the fourth parameter as follows:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new {id="Form" }))
{

@Html.DropDownList("selectedItem ", Model.lst, "--Select Value--",
new
{
onchange = "document.getElementById('Form').submit();"
})

}