How to add item to the beginning of List<T>?

Use the Insert method:

ti.Insert(0, initialItem);

Update: a better idea, set the "AppendDataBoundItems" property to true, then declare the "Choose item" declaratively. The databinding operation will add to the statically declared item.

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddl" runat="server" AppendDataBoundItems="true">
    <asp:ListItem Value="0" Text="Please choose..."></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.listcontrol.appenddatabounditems.aspx

-Oisin

Since .NET 4.7.1, you can use the side-effect free Prepend() and Append(). The output is going to be an IEnumerable.

// Creating an array of numbers
var ti = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 };

// Prepend and Append any value of the same type
var results = ti.Prepend(0).Append(4);

// output is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", results ));