Drop down list option disappears

[Webskater]

If I write

<asp:ListItem Value="0">--Select Category --</asp:ListItem>

It creates an <option> in a <select> drop-down list.

To populate the drop-down list I am doing something like this to get the list items from a database:

                conn.Open()
                reader = categoryComm.ExecuteReader()
                categoryList.DataSource = reader
                categoryList.DataValueField = "CategoryID"
                categoryList.DataTextField = "Category"
                categoryList.DataBind()
                reader.Close()

... which works fine. But, when I populate the list from the database it deletes the <asp:ListItem> so it no longer says --Select Category-- at the top of the list. The list only contains the items from the database.

How can I get the --Select Category-- option to stay there?

Thanks for any help.

[lmf232s]

You can do this 1 of two ways. I prefer this first method
1.

conn.Open()
reader = categoryComm.ExecuteReader()
With categoryList
	.DataSource = reader
	.DataValueField = "CategoryID"
	.DataTextField = "Category"
	.DataBind()
	.Items.Insert(0, New ListItem("--Select Category--", ""))
End With
reader.Close()

2.
You should be able to set this property of the drop down list

AppendDataBoundItems="true"