How to add empty alternative to drowpDownList

Question

I am populating dropdownlist like this:

SPList categories = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists["Categories"];
                dropdownlist.DataSource = categories.Items;
                dropdownlist.DataValueField = "ID";
                dropdownlist.DataTextField = "Title";
                dropdownlist.DataBind();

Let say, if user do not want to select any value from dropdownlist, but want to select an empty option. how i add an empty alternative to dropdownlist ??

Answer 1

Add this line after you populate the ddl

dropdownlist.Items.Add(new ListItem("Select Value", "0"));