If you would like your application to set the selected item in your dropdownlist to an item from a variable passed to it, or from the database

Here are some examples:

ASP.NET 

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server"/><br />

DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = DropDownList1.Items.IndexOf(DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue(value.ToString()));

VBScript ASP Example:

  response.write "<select size=""1"" name=""selectData"" id=""selectData"">"
  response.write "<option value='0'>-- Select  Data --</option>"
  do while not objRs.eof

      if (ContactType = objRS("Value")) then
          response.write "<option value='"+cstr(objRS("Value"))+"' selected>"+objRS("Description")+"</option>"
      else
          response.write "<option value='"+cstr(objRS("Value"))+"'>"+objRS("Description")+"</option>"
      end if

      objRs.MoveNext
  loop
  response.write "</select></font></p>"

If you have a lot of variables i suggest using a for loop:

    response.write "<select name='select1'>"

    Dim MyWebSiteArray
    PrefOddsArray = MyWebSiteArray("web design","design","website","nathan","baker")

    For each Item in MyWebSiteArray

   DatabaseValue = RS("ValueFromDatabase")

   if(DatabaseValue = Item)  then
        response.write "<option value="""+Item+""" selected>"+Item+"</option>\n"
    else
        response.write "<option value="""+Item+""">"+Item+"</option>\n"
    end if
    Next
    response.write "</select></td>"
    response.write "</tr>"

If you receive this error 

ADODB.Recordset error '800a0e78'

Operation is not allowed when the object is closed.

you will need to check the state of the recordset as in the code below before you access any properties of the object

if not oRs.state <> 1 then

        if not oRs.eof then

              if oRs("Value").Value > 0 then
                 myval = oRs("Value").Value
            else
           myval = 0     
            end if
        end if
    else
        Response.Write "Cannot find any records"
    end if
   

This is an example of a connection string for ASP (JScript and VBScript)

var connString = "Provider=sqloledb; Network Library=DBMSSOCN; Data Source=10.1.1.1;User ID=exampleUser; Password=examplePassword;Connection Timeout=90;Application Name=MyApplication;"

I came across the following errors in my ASP Code when my connection string was not setup correctly.

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e4d'

Invalid authorization specification

The problem was my original connection string did not have the userid and password credentials

Invalid connection string attribute

Invalid Data in either Password and/or Username or Initial Catalog etc