[c#] Binding Combobox Using Dictionary as the Datasource

I'm using .NET 2.0 and I'm trying to bind a combobox's Datasource to a sorted dictionary.

So the error I'm getting is "DataMember property 'Key' cannot be found on the Datasource".

        SortedDictionary<string, int> userCache = UserCache.getSortedUserValueCache();
        userListComboBox.DataSource = new BindingSource(userCache, "Key"); //This line is causing the error
        userListComboBox.DisplayMember = "Key";
        userListComboBox.ValueMember = "Value";

Just Try to do like this....

SortedDictionary<string, int> userCache = UserCache.getSortedUserValueCache();

    // Add this code
    if(userCache != null)
    {
        userListComboBox.DataSource = new BindingSource(userCache, null); // Key => null
        userListComboBox.DisplayMember = "Key";
        userListComboBox.ValueMember = "Value";
    }

userListComboBox.DataSource = userCache.ToList();
userListComboBox.DisplayMember = "Key";

I know this is a pretty old topic, but I also had a same problem.

My solution:

how we fill the combobox:

foreach (KeyValuePair<int, string> item in listRegion)
{
    combo.Items.Add(item.Value);
    combo.ValueMember = item.Value.ToString();
    combo.DisplayMember = item.Key.ToString();
    combo.SelectedIndex = 0;
}

and that's how we get inside:

 MessageBox.Show(combo_region.DisplayMember.ToString());

I hope it help someone

I used Sorin Comanescu's solution, but hit a problem when trying to get the selected value. My combobox was a toolstrip combobox. I used the "combobox" property, which exposes a normal combobox.

I had a

 Dictionary<Control, string> controls = new Dictionary<Control, string>();

Binding code (Sorin Comanescu's solution - worked like a charm):

 controls.Add(pictureBox1, "Image");
 controls.Add(dgvText, "Text");
 cbFocusedControl.ComboBox.DataSource = new BindingSource(controls, null);
 cbFocusedControl.ComboBox.ValueMember = "Key";
 cbFocusedControl.ComboBox.DisplayMember = "Value";

The problem was that when I tried to get the selected value, I didn't realize how to retrieve it. After several attempts I got this:

 var control = ((KeyValuePair<Control, string>) cbFocusedControl.ComboBox.SelectedItem).Key

Hope it helps someone else!

Use -->

comboBox1.DataSource = colors.ToList();

Unless the dictionary is converted to list, combo-box can't recognize its members.

A dictionary cannot be directly used as a data source, you should do more.

SortedDictionary<string, int> userCache =  UserCache.getSortedUserValueCache();
KeyValuePair<string, int> [] ar= new KeyValuePair<string,int>[userCache.Count];
userCache.CopyTo(ar, 0);
comboBox1.DataSource = ar; new BindingSource(ar, "Key"); //This line is causing the error
comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Value";
comboBox1.ValueMember = "Key";

If this doesn't work why not simply do a foreach loop over the dictionary adding all the items to the combobox?

foreach(var item in userCache)
{
    userListComboBox.Items.Add(new ListItem(item.Key, item.Value));
}

        var colors = new Dictionary < string, string > ();
        colors["10"] = "Red";

Binding to Combobox

        comboBox1.DataSource = new BindingSource(colors, null);
        comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Value";
        comboBox1.ValueMember = "Key"; 

Full Source...Dictionary as a Combobox Datasource

Jeryy