Why is my 'CategoryID' ViewData item causing a 'The ViewData item that has the key 'CategoryID' is of type 'System.Int32' but must be of type 'IEnumerable'.' error?

This article explains how to fix the error "The ViewData Item for 'CategoryID' Must Be of Type 'IEnumerable'" in ASP.NET MVC. The error arises because a DropDownListFor helper expects an IEnumerable (typically a collection of SelectListItem objects) for the CategoryID ViewData item, but it's receiving an int instead. This usually happens when the data for the dropdown list isn't properly populated during a POST request.

The core problem is that the CategoryList property in the ProjectVM view model, which supplies data to the dropdown, isn't being refreshed in the Create action's POST method. The solution is to repopulate CategoryList within the Create POST method.

Here's how to correct the Create action method:

<code class="language-csharp">public ActionResult Create(ProjectVM model)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        // Repopulate the CategoryList property
        model.CategoryList = new SelectList(db.Categories, "ID", "Name"); 
        return View(model);
    }
    // ... (Your existing code to save the project) ...
}</code>

By adding model.CategoryList = new SelectList(db.Categories, "ID", "Name"); inside the if (!ModelState.IsValid) block, the CategoryList is correctly populated with data from the Categories table (assuming db is your database context), providing the necessary IEnumerable<SelectListItem> to the DropDownListFor helper. This prevents the type mismatch and allows successful form submission. The SelectList constructor takes the data source, the value field ("ID"), and the text field ("Name"). This ensures the dropdown displays the correct category names and values.

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