title: How to combine two dataTextFields for SelectList Description in asp.net MVC 3 using @Html.DropDownListFor
body: <p>I am returning some stored contacts to view for DropDownList and I am not able to include multiple dataTextFields on my SelectList.</p>
  
  <p>Currently I have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.DropDownListFor(model =&gt; model.Account.AccountContacts, 
           new SelectList(ViewBag.DDContacts, "Contact.ContactID", "Contact.FirstName"),   
           new { @class = "select", style = "width: 100px;" })
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.DropDownListFor(model =&gt; model.Account.AccountContacts, 
          new SelectList(ViewBag.DDContacts, "Contact.ContactID", "Contact.FullName"),         
          new { @class = "select", style = "width: 100px;" })
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which combines both FirstName and LastName properties.</p>
  
  <p>UPDATE: I am aware of extending contact property, I was curious was there a streamline way to accomplish this in the View or Controller.  I tried the two solutions <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2758734/how-can-i-combine-two-fields-in-a-selectlist-text-description">here</a> to no avail. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2758734/how-can-i-combine-two-fields-in-a-selectlist-text-description">How can I combine two fields in a SelectList text description?</a></p>