How to use a ViewBag to create a dropdownlist?

I do the following

In my action method

    Dictionary<string, string> dictAccounts = ViewModelDropDown.GetAccounts(id);
    ViewBag.accounts = dictAccounts;

In my View Code

 Dictionary<string, string> accounts = (Dictionary<string, string>)ViewBag.accounts;
 @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.AccountId, new SelectList(accounts, "Value", "Key"), new { style = "width:310px; height: 30px; padding 5px; margin: 5px 0 6px; background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFF; vertical-align:middle;" })

Try:

In the controller:

ViewBag.Accounts= new SelectList(db.Accounts, "AccountId", "AccountName");

In the View:

@Html.DropDownList("AccountId", (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.Accounts, null, new { @class ="form-control" })

or you can replace the "null" with whatever you want display as default selector, i.e. "Select Account".

You cannot used the Helper @Html.DropdownListFor, because the first parameter was not correct, change your helper to:

@Html.DropDownList("accountid", new SelectList(ViewBag.Accounts, "AccountID", "AccountName"))

@Html.DropDownListFor receive in the first parameters a lambda expression in all overloads and is used to create strongly typed dropdowns.

Here's the documentation

If your View it's strongly typed to some Model you may change your code using a helper to created a strongly typed dropdownlist, something like

@Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.accountId, new SelectList(ViewBag.Accounts, "AccountID", "AccountName"))

hope it will work

 @Html.DropDownList("accountid", (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.Accounts, String.Empty, new { @class ="extra-class" })

Here String.Empty will be the empty as a default selector.