Populating ASP.NET DropDownList Control using XML File

Step 1: Creating the Required XML File named 'Countries.xml'.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Countries>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>1</CountryID>
        <CountryName>India</CountryName>
    </Country>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>2</CountryID>
        <CountryName>USA</CountryName>
    </Country>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>3</CountryID>
        <CountryName>China</CountryName>
    </Country>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>4</CountryID>
        <CountryName>Australia</CountryName>
    </Country>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>5</CountryID>
        <CountryName>United Kingdom</CountryName>
    </Country>
    <Country>
        <CountryID>6</CountryID>
        <CountryName>Brazil</CountryName>
    </Country>
</Countries>

Step 2: Drag and Drop a Dropdownlist Control from ASP.NET Controls Toolbox and Press F7 Key to Add the Below code to the Code Behind File.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
namespace DDLPopulateWithXML
{
    public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack) //Used to Check that Whether the page loads first time or Second Time
            {
                DataSet ds = new DataSet(); //Created a Dataset to Store data
                ds.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("Countries.xml")); // Using ReadXml Method of the Dataset Class and Server.MapPath is used to
Get the Correct path of the XML File
                DropDownList1.DataSource = ds; //Setting the Datasource of DDL to Dataset
                DropDownList1.DataTextField = "CountryName"; //This is the name of the tag of XML file through which we want to Show the Values
                DropDownList1.DataValueField = "CountryID"; //This is the Primary key on which the Data is fetched
                DropDownList1.DataBind(); //Data is Binded with the dropdownlist
                ListItem LI = new ListItem("---Select---", "-1"); //Used to Show Some Custom Text in the list of DDL
                DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0,LI); //Used to Insert the Above Value at the 0 Index Location of the DDL, so that It appears
on Top
            }
        }
    }
}