How to add list items with different text and value in DropDownList in asp.net

Suppose that we are using DropDownList to display a list of countries and we want the control to return the country id of currently selected country. We can do so by using the DataValueField property of a list item.

If we are using a datatable for binding DropDownList control then you can set datavaluefield as:

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<script runat="server">
    Sub Page_Load()
        If Not IsPostBack Then
            Dim dt As New DataTable
            dt.Columns.Add("id")
            dt.Columns.Add("Country")
            Dim rw As DataRow
            rw = dt.NewRow()
            rw(0) = "1"
            rw(1) = "USA"
            dt.Rows.Add(rw)
            rw = dt.NewRow()
            rw(0) = "2"
            rw(1) = "India"
            dt.Rows.Add(rw)
            rw = dt.NewRow()
            rw(0) = "3"
            rw(1) = "Japan"
            dt.Rows.Add(rw)
 
            DropDownList1.DataSource = dt
            DropDownList1.DataValueField = "id"
            DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Country"
            DropDownList1.DataBind()
        End If
    End Sub
</script>
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>Find Selected item in DropDownList control</title>
</head>
<body style="height: 410px; width: 768px">
    <form runat="server">
    <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" >
    </asp:DropDownList>
   </form>
</body>
</html>

If we bind DropDownList control as the time of declaration then you can set datavaluefield as:

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>Find Selected item in DropDownList control</title>
</head>
<body style="height: 410px; width: 768px">
    <form runat="server">
    <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" >
    <asp:ListItem Text="USA" Value="1" />
    <asp:ListItem Text="India" Value="2" />
    <asp:ListItem Text="Japan" Value="3" />
    </asp:DropDownList>
   </form>
</body>
</html>