Sorry if this is a dup, my searching turned up nothing.

I am using the following method to generate drop down lists for enum types (lifted from here: http://addinit.com/?q=node/54):

public static string DropDownList(this HtmlHelper helper, string name, Type type, object selected)
{
    if (!type.IsEnum)
        throw new ArgumentException("Type is not an enum.");

    if(selected != null && selected.GetType() != type)
        throw new ArgumentException("Selected object is not " + type.ToString());

    var enums = new List<SelectListItem>();
    foreach (int value in Enum.GetValues(type))
    {
        var item = new SelectListItem();
        item.Value = value.ToString();
        item.Text = Enum.GetName(type, value);

        if(selected != null)
            item.Selected = (int)selected == value;

        enums.Add(item);
     }

    return System.Web.Mvc.Html.SelectExtensions.DropDownList(helper, name, enums, "--Select--");
}

It is working fine, except for one thing. If I give the dropdown list the same name as the property on my model the selected value is not set properly. Meaning this works:

<%= Html.DropDownList("fam", typeof(EnumFamily), Model.Family)%>

But this doesn't:

<%= Html.DropDownList("family", typeof(EnumFamily), Model.Family)%>

Because I'm trying to pass an entire object directly to the controller method I am posting to, I would really like to have the dropdown list named for the property on the model. When using the "right" name, the dropdown does post correctly, I just can't seem to set the selected value.

I don't think this matters but I am running MVC 1 on mono 2.6