title: Single event handler for multiple links/buttons on ASP.NET
body: <p>I have a dropdown list that contains a collection of names. My entire names list is very large (over 2,000) so I would like to pair down the names in the drop down list to those starting with the same letter.</p>
  
  <p>To do this I would like to have 26 links all on the same line, one for each letter in the alphabet ..</p>
  
  <pre><code>A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The idea being that the user clicks on the letter they are interested in and the stored procedure that obtains the list of names is re-executed to only grab those names starting with the letter that was clicked and then the resulting dataset is rebound to the dropdown list.</p>
  
  <p>What is vexing me is how to handle creating all the "Click Events" necessary to deal with the user "clicking" on a link. <strong>I could create 26 different event handlers</strong>, one for each link, <strong>but I have to believe there is a simpler way I am not seeing</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>Form demonstration here is the click event for one link, the letter "A" ...</p>
  
  <pre><code>      Protected Sub lnkLetterA_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles lnkLeterA.Click
          Call LoadNamesIntoDropDown("A")
        End Sub
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a way to create one event handler that could handle all 26 links? Thank you.</p>
  
  <p>P.S. C# or VB.NET examples are fine. I just happen to be using VB.NET in this case.</p>