Dynamic runtime-created DropDownList problem

[ShaReB]

Hi,

I'm creating a drop down list at runtime, specifying the DataSourceID property to a SqlDataSource.
I want to add a ListItem at the beginning of the DropDownList and have it as the selected item but nothing happens

here's the code:

                    Dim _ddl As DropDownList = New DropDownList()
                    _ddl.ID = "ddl" + iCounter2.ToString()
                    _ddl.DataSourceID = "RatingScalesSqlDataSource"
                    _ddl.DataTextField = "ScaleDescEn"
                    _ddl.DataValueField = "ScaleID"
                    Dim emptyListItem As ListItem = New ListItem("--Select--", "")
                    _ddl.Items.Add(emptyListItem)
                    _ddl.Items.FindByValue("").Selected = True

Thanks in advance

[ShaReB]

No suggestions?