Sharepoint 2010: How to set default value for a lookup column (without InfoPath forms)

Question

How can I set default value for a lookup column (when we adding new item)? For lists creating I am using site columns and site content types in elements.xml.

I can set default value for text or date field type, but I can't find any way to do it for lookup column. I've find this article, but I don't want to use custom InfoPath forms. Is there any possibility to do it?

My site column elements.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Field
       ID="{a5a8622d-df8d-4988-acd4-4645081d16fe}"
       Type="Lookup"
       AllowDeletion="FALSE" 
       Description="Data Centre lookup" 
       List="Lists/DataCentres"
       ShowField="Title"
       FillInChoice="TRUE"
       Name="NewServer Datacentre"       
       DisplayName="Data Centre"       
       Group="Data centre">
    <Default>1;#FirstDataCenter</Default>
  </Field>
</Elements>

I've tried to play with

<DefaultFormula> 

but I also have not got any results.

The "1;#FirstDataCenter" is the correct string, I am succesfully using the identical string for setting list item value.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

From the below blog, you can use the following code...

SPList docs = w.Lists["Documents"];
SPFieldLookup fl = (SPFieldLookup)docs.Fields["City"];
fl.DefaultValue = "1;#Mexico City";
fl.Update();

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/varun_malhotra/archive/2008/06/19/how-to-set-the-default-value-for-a-look-up-field-for-an-item-as-it-is-being-created.aspx

Answer 2

I wrote a simple add-on(SharePoint Default Value Add-On), which inject a "default value" section into "Create Column" dialog.

Answer 3

Simplified - the first value for the column on the list you are referencing for your lookup should be a variation of "(a) Select". It's a kludge and you will probably want to do one of the options above to make it look elegant in the long run but it will get you past the initial problem so you can test your list.