DropDownList Extension Methods

I was doing a fair bit of work with drop down lists in ASP .NET the other day and seemed to be constantly writing code to select items in the list, then I realised that this code would be ideal for some extension methods. So I came up with the following:

public static class DropDownListExtension
    {       
        /// <summary>
        /// Populates the specified drop down list with the names of the specified enum type.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list to populate.</param>
        /// <param name="enumType">Type of the enum.</param>
        public static void PopulateWithEnum<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList)
        {
            DropDownListExtension.PopulateWithEnum<T>(dropDownList, true, true);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Populates the specified drop down list with the names of the specified enum type.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list to populate.</param>
        /// <param name="enumType">Type of the enum.</param>
        /// <param name="clearItems">if set to <c>true</c> clear any existing items in the list.</param>
        /// <param name="insertSpaces">if set to <c>true</c> insert spaces between capital letters for readability in UI.</param>
        public static void PopulateWithEnum<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList, bool clearItems, bool insertSpaces)
        {
            if (clearItems) 
            { 
                dropDownList.Items.Clear(); 
            }

            foreach (var name in Enum.GetNames(typeof(T)))
            {
                ListItem item = new ListItem()
                {
                    Text = insertSpaces ? Format.SplitPascalCase(name) : name,
                    Value = name
                };

                dropDownList.Items.Add(item);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the selected value and parses it as the specified enum type.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of enum to return.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list.</param>
        /// <returns>An enum value of the specified type.</returns>
        public static T GetSelectedValueAsEnum<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList)
        {
            if (!typeof(T).IsEnum) 
            { 
                throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("{0} is not a valid enum.", typeof(T).Name)); 
            }
            
            return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), dropDownList.SelectedValue);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the selected item by finding the specified value in the drop down list.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the value to set.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <returns>
        ///     <c>true</c> if the data selection was successful; otherwise <c>false</c>
        /// </returns>
        public static bool SetSelectedValue<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList, T value)
        {
            return SetSelectedValue<T>(dropDownList, value, CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the selected item by finding the specified value in the drop down list.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the value to set.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <param name="culture">The culture to format the string to search by.</param>
        /// <returns>
        ///     <c>true</c> if the data selection was successful; otherwise <c>false</c>
        /// </returns>
        public static bool SetSelectedValue<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList, T value, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            bool success = false;
            if (value != null)
            {
                ListItem item = dropDownList.Items.FindByValue(string.Format(culture, "{0}", value));
                if (item != null)
                {
                    dropDownList.SelectedIndex = dropDownList.Items.IndexOf(item);
                    success = true;
                }
            }

            return success;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the selected item by finding the specified text value in the drop down list.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the text value to set.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list.</param>
        /// <param name="text">The text to find in the list.</param>
        /// <returns><c>true</c> if the data selection was successful; otherwise <c>false</c></returns>
        public static bool SetSelectedText<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList, T text)
        {
            return SetSelectedText<T>(dropDownList, text, CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the selected item by finding the specified text value in the drop down list.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the text value to set.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="dropDownList">The drop down list.</param>
        /// <param name="text">The text.</param>
        /// <param name="culture">The culture to format the string to search by.</param>
        /// <returns><c>true</c> if the data selection was successful; otherwise <c>false</c></returns>
        public static bool SetSelectedText<T>(this DropDownList dropDownList, T text, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            bool success = false;
            if (text != null)
            {
                ListItem item = dropDownList.Items.FindByText(string.Format(culture, "{0}", text));
                if (item != null)
                {
                    dropDownList.SelectedIndex = dropDownList.Items.IndexOf(item);
                    success = true;
                }
            }

            return success;
        }
    }

These methods can be simply used to set the selected text in an ASP .NET drop down list or populate a list with the contents of an enum.

Cheers