title: ASP.NET MVC - Set default value for static Select (dropdownlist)
body: <p>I am using the regular html drop downlist (select) in a View.
  I don't want to use Html.DropdownlistFor for some reason. 
  Now I am able to get the selected value in my Controller class.
  How do I assign back a selected value back to the view?</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;select name='ddlLocation' id='ddlLocation'&gt;
    &lt;option value=""&gt;All &lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option selected="selected" value="1"&gt;City1&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option value="2"&gt;City2&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;optgroup label="Group"&gt;
      &lt;option value="3"&gt;City2&lt;/option&gt;
      &lt;option value="4"&gt;City3&lt;/option&gt;
      &lt;option value="5"&gt;City4&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;/optgroup&gt;
  &lt;/select&gt;
  </code></pre>