MVC3 DropDownListFor - a simple example?

You should do like this:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ContribType, 
                new SelectList(Model.ContribTypeOptions, 
                               "ContribId", "Value"))

Where:

m => m.ContribType

is a property where the result value will be.

For binding Dynamic Data in a DropDownList you can do the following:

Create ViewBag in Controller like below

ViewBag.ContribTypeOptions = yourFunctionValue();

now use this value in view like below:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.ContribType, 
    new SelectList(@ViewBag.ContribTypeOptions, "ContribId", 
                   "Value", Model.ContribTypeOptions.First().ContribId), 
    "Select, please")

I think this will help : In Controller get the list items and selected value

public ActionResult Edit(int id)
{
    ItemsStore item = itemStoreRepository.FindById(id);
    ViewBag.CategoryId = new SelectList(categoryRepository.Query().Get(), 
                                        "Id", "Name",item.CategoryId);

    // ViewBag to pass values to View and SelectList
    //(get list of items,valuefield,textfield,selectedValue)

    return View(item);
}

and in View

@Html.DropDownList("CategoryId",String.Empty)