Dynamically populate drop down list in share point 2010

Question

I am newbie in share point development and basically a dot net developer. How one can populate drop down list dynamically. I find one way from google, populate drop down list using list but isn't there way to populate drop down list from data base table.

It would also be helpfull if some one tell me any link or free book which go through an application and its implementation. As mostly books or links are general.

Answer 1

First of all, Welcome to the SharePoint world !!

This is something basic with SharePoint that you dont access database table for anything. Since its a finished product from Microsoft, SharePoint itself stores data into SQL and manages the database structure by its own. If we need to store values into SharePoint, the best option would be to store it in SharePoint Custom Lists. These lists can be maintained as similar to a database table.

There is a lot to read about SharePoint to get your fundamentals correct on the product.

Here is a similar post from MSDN for beginners- http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointgeneral/thread/57328ab4-75a6-4bc2-b0d0-34e8e0aea47d

Good Luck !!!