I have a list of options (IEnumerable< SelectListItem >) in my model that I want to use in multiple dropdowns in my view. But each of these dropdowns could have a different selected option.

Is there an easy way to simply specfiy which should be selected if using the Html.DropDownList helper?

At this point, the only way I can see is to generate the html myself and loop through the list of options like so:

<% for(int i=0; i<10; i++) { %>
    <select name="myDropDown<%= i %>">
        <% foreach(var option in Model.Options) { %>
        <option value="<%= Html.Encode(option.optValue) %>" <%if(ShouldBeSelected(i)) {%> selected="selected"<% } %>><%= Html.Encode(option.optText) %></option>
        <% } %>
    </select>
<% } %>