(C#) DropDownList Using SelectedIndex w/ onDataBinding

[spamguy]

I have a DataGrid and a column that changes into a DropDownList when edited:

<columns>
    <asp:templatecolumn headertext="Role Type">
        <itemtemplate>
            <asp:hyperlink id="hlinkRoleType" navigateurl='<%# "contact_roles_details.aspx?id=" + DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.ID", "{0}").ToString() %>' Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.Role", "{0}").ToString() %>' runat="server"/>
        </itemtemplate>
        <edititemtemplate>
            <asp:dropdownlist id="ddlRoleEdit" datavaluefield="ID" datatextfield="Name" datasource="<%# FillRoleList() %>" ondatabinding="ddlRoleEdit_ItemDataBound" runat="server" />
        </edititemtemplate>
    </asp:templatecolumn>
    <asp:editcommandcolumn buttontype="LinkButton" edittext="&lt;img src=&quot;images/edit_icon.gif&quot;&gt;" />
    <asp:buttoncolumn text="&lt;img src=&quot;images/delete_icon.gif&quot;&gt;" commandname="deleteRole"></asp:buttoncolumn>
</columns>

I've spent many many hours trying to set the default value of the DDL to whatever was present before editing. Everything I've inserted into the *** below stirs up some petty technical error in C#:

public void ddlRoleEdit_ItemDataBound(Object sender, DataGridItemEventArgs e)
{
    DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList) sender;
 
    ddl.SelectedValue = ***
}
 

[spamguy]

Still having no luck. In addition, I used the wrong EventArgs type, even though I swear it worked at one point. The corrected C# code is below. With plain old EventArgs, it's even harder than before to do what I want.

public void ddlRoleEdit_ItemDataBound(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
      DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList) sender;
      ddl.SelectedValue = ***
}