How to bind an enum to a combobox control in WPF

Question

I am trying to find a simple example where the enums are shown as is  All examples I have seen tries to add nice looking display strings but I don t want that complexity   Basically I have a class that holds all the properties that I bind  by first setting the DataContext to this class  and then specifying the binding like this in the xaml file    lt ComboBox ItemsSource   Binding Path EffectStyle    gt    But this doesn t show the enum values in the ComboBox as items

User · Answer

Use ObjectDataProvider    lt ObjectDataProvider x Key  enumValues     MethodName  GetValues  ObjectType   x Type System Enum   gt         lt ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt              lt x Type TypeName  local ExampleEnum   gt         lt  ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt    lt  ObjectDataProvider gt    and then bind to static resource   ItemsSource   Binding Source  StaticResource enumValues      based on this article

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Using ReactiveUI  I ve created the following alternate solution  It s not an elegant all-in-one solution  but I think at the very least it s readable    In my case  binding a list of enum to a control is a rare case  so I don t need to scale the solution across the code base  However  the code can be made more generic by changing EffectStyleLookup Item into an Object  I tested it with my code  no other modifications are necessary  Which means the one helper class could be applied to any enum list  Though that would reduce its readability - ReactiveList lt EnumLookupHelper gt  doesn t have a great ring to it   Using the following helper class   public class EffectStyleLookup       public EffectStyle Item   get  set        public string Display   get  set        In the ViewModel  convert the list of enums and expose it as a property   public ViewModel   ReactiveObject     private ReactiveList lt EffectStyleLookup gt   effectStyles    public ReactiveList lt EffectStyleLookup gt  EffectStyles         get   return  effectStyles        set   this RaiseAndSetIfChanged ref  effectStyles  value               See below for more on this   private EffectStyle  selectedEffectStyle    public EffectStyle SelectedEffectStyle         get   return  selectedEffectStyle        set   this RaiseAndSetIfChanged ref  selectedEffectStyle  value            public ViewModel               Convert a list of enums into a ReactiveList     var list    IList lt EffectStyle gt  Enum GetValues typeof EffectStyle          Select  x   gt  new EffectStyleLookup              Item   x           Display   x ToString                  EffectStyles   new ReactiveList lt EffectStyle gt   list            In the ComboBox  utilise the SelectedValuePath property  to bind to the original enum value    lt ComboBox Name  EffectStyle  DisplayMemberPath  Display  SelectedValuePath  Item    gt    In the View  this allows us to bind the original enum to the SelectedEffectStyle in the ViewModel  but display the ToString   value in the ComboBox   this WhenActivated  d   gt      d  this OneWayBind ViewModel  vm   gt  vm EffectStyles  v   gt  v EffectStyle ItemsSource       d  this Bind ViewModel  vm   gt  vm SelectedEffectStyle  v   gt  v EffectStyle SelectedValue

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public class EnumItemsConverter   IValueConverter       public object Convert object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                if   value GetType   IsEnum              return false           var enumName   value GetType            var obj   Enum Parse enumName  value ToString              return System Convert ToInt32 obj              public object ConvertBack object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                return Enum ToObject targetType  System Convert ToInt32 value              You should extend Rogers and Greg s answer with such kind of Enum value converter  if you re binding straight to enum object model properties

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Nick s solutuion can be simplified more  with nothing fancy  you would only need a single converter    ValueConversion typeof Enum   typeof IEnumerable lt Enum gt     public class EnumToCollectionConverter   MarkupExtension  IValueConverter       public object Convert object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                var r   Enum GetValues value GetType             return r            public object ConvertBack object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                return null            public override object ProvideValue IServiceProvider serviceProvider                return this            You then use this wherever you want your combo box to appear    lt ComboBox ItemsSource   Binding PagePosition  Converter  converter EnumToCollectionConverter   Mode OneTime    SelectedItem   Binding PagePosition     gt

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Nick s answer has really helped me  but I realised it could be tweaked slightly  to avoid an extra class  ValueDescription  I remembered that there exists a KeyValuePair class already in the framework  so this can be used instead   The code changes only slightly    public static IEnumerable lt KeyValuePair lt string  string gt  gt  GetAllValuesAndDescriptions lt TEnum gt    where TEnum   struct  IConvertible  IComparable  IFormattable               if   typeof TEnum  IsEnum                        throw new ArgumentException  TEnum must be an Enumeration type                       return from e in Enum GetValues typeof TEnum   Cast lt Enum gt                   select new KeyValuePair lt string  string gt  e ToString     e Description             public IEnumerable lt KeyValuePair lt string  string gt  gt  PlayerClassList      get             return EnumHelper GetAllValuesAndDescriptions lt PlayerClass gt              and finally the XAML     lt ComboBox ItemSource   Binding Path PlayerClassList             DisplayMemberPath  Value            SelectedValuePath  Key            SelectedValue   Binding Path SelectedClass     gt    I hope this is helpful to others

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I liked tom maruska s answer  but I needed to support any enum type which my template might encounter at runtime   For that  I had to use a binding to specify the type to the markup extension   I was able to work in this answer from nicolay anykienko to come up with a very flexible markup extension which would work in any case I can think of   It is consumed like this    lt ComboBox SelectedValue   Binding MyEnumProperty              SelectedValuePath  Value            ItemsSource   local EnumToObjectArray SourceEnum  Binding MyEnumProperty               DisplayMemberPath  DisplayName    gt    The source for the mashed up markup extension referenced above   class EnumToObjectArray   MarkupExtension       public BindingBase SourceEnum   get  set         public override object ProvideValue IServiceProvider serviceProvider                IProvideValueTarget target   serviceProvider GetService typeof IProvideValueTarget   as IProvideValueTarget          DependencyObject targetObject          DependencyProperty targetProperty           if  target    null  amp  amp  target TargetObject is DependencyObject  amp  amp  target TargetProperty is DependencyProperty                        targetObject    DependencyObject target TargetObject              targetProperty    DependencyProperty target TargetProperty                    else                       return this                     BindingOperations SetBinding targetObject  EnumToObjectArray SourceEnumBindingSinkProperty  SourceEnum            var type   targetObject GetValue SourceEnumBindingSinkProperty  GetType             if  type BaseType    typeof System Enum   return this           return Enum GetValues type               Cast lt Enum gt                 Select e   gt  new   Value e  Name   e ToString    DisplayName   Description e                 private static DependencyProperty SourceEnumBindingSinkProperty   DependencyProperty RegisterAttached  SourceEnumBindingSink   typeof Enum                           typeof EnumToObjectArray   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata null  FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions Inherits              lt summary gt          Extension method which returns the string specified in the Description attribute  if any   Oherwise  name is returned           lt  summary gt           lt param name  value  gt The enum value  lt  param gt           lt returns gt  lt  returns gt      public static string Description Enum value                var attrs   value GetType   GetField value ToString    GetCustomAttributes typeof DescriptionAttribute   false           if  attrs Any                return  attrs First   as DescriptionAttribute  Description             Fallback         return value ToString   Replace

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I just kept it simple  I created a list of items with the enum values in my ViewModel   public enum InputsOutputsBoth       Inputs      Outputs      Both    private IList lt InputsOutputsBoth gt   ioTypes   new List lt InputsOutputsBoth gt            InputsOutputsBoth Both       InputsOutputsBoth Inputs       InputsOutputsBoth Outputs      public IEnumerable lt InputsOutputsBoth gt  IoTypes       get   return  ioTypes        set        private InputsOutputsBoth  selectedIoType   public InputsOutputsBoth SelectedIoType       get   return  selectedIoType        set                selectedIoType   value          OnPropertyChanged  SelectedIoType            OnSelectionChanged              In my xaml code I just need this    lt ComboBox ItemsSource   Binding IoTypes   SelectedItem   Binding SelectedIoType  Mode TwoWay   gt

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Simple and clear explanation  http   brianlagunas com a-better-way-to-data-bind-enums-in-wpf   xmlns local  clr-namespace BindingEnums  xmlns sys  clr-namespace System assembly mscorlib          lt Window Resources gt       lt ObjectDataProvider x Key  dataFromEnum  MethodName  GetValues                          ObjectType   x Type sys Enum   gt           lt ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt               lt x Type TypeName  local Status   gt           lt  ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt       lt  ObjectDataProvider gt   lt  Window Resources gt          lt Grid gt       lt ComboBox HorizontalAlignment  Center  VerticalAlignment  Center  MinWidth  150                ItemsSource   Binding Source  StaticResource dataFromEnum     gt   lt  Grid gt

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I m adding my comment  in VB  sadly  but the concept can be easily replicated over to C  in a heartbeat   because I just had to reference this and didn t like any of the answers as they were too complex  It shouldn t have to be this difficult    So I came up with an easier way  Bind the Enumerators to a Dictionary  Bind that dictionary to the Combobox    My combobox    lt ComboBox x Name  cmbRole  VerticalAlignment  Stretch  IsEditable  False  Padding  2       Margin  0  FontSize  11  HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  TabIndex  104       SelectedValuePath  Key  DisplayMemberPath  Value    gt    My code-behind  Hopefully  this helps someone else out   Dim tDict As New Dictionary Of Integer  String  Dim types    Enum  GetValues GetType Helper Enumerators AllowedType   For Each x As Helper Enumerators AllowedType In types     Dim z   x ToString       Dim y   CInt x      tDict Add y  z  Next  cmbRole ClearValue ItemsControl ItemsSourceProperty  cmbRole ItemsSource   tDict

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All the above posts have missed a simple trick  It is possible from the binding of SelectedValue to find out how to populate the ItemsSource AUTOMAGICALLY so that your XAML markup is just    lt Controls EnumComboBox SelectedValue   Binding Fool    gt    For example in my ViewModel I have  public enum FoolEnum               AAA  BBB  CCC  DDD               FoolEnum  Fool      public FoolEnum Fool               get   return  Fool            set   ValidateRaiseAndSetIfChanged ref  Fool  value             ValidateRaiseAndSetIfChanged is my INPC hook  Yours may differ    The implementation of EnumComboBox is as follows but first I ll need a little helper to get my enumeration strings and values      public static List lt Tuple lt object  string  int gt  gt  EnumToList Type t                return Enum              GetValues t               Cast lt object gt                 Select x  gt Tuple Create x  x ToString     int x                ToList            and the main class   Note I m using ReactiveUI for hooking property changes via WhenAny    using ReactiveUI  using ReactiveUI Utils  using System  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System Reactive Linq  using System Windows  using System Windows Documents   namespace My Controls       public class EnumComboBox   System Windows Controls ComboBox               static EnumComboBox                         DefaultStyleKeyProperty OverrideMetadata typeof EnumComboBox   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata typeof EnumComboBox                        protected override void OnInitialized  EventArgs e                         base OnInitialized e                this WhenAnyValue p   gt  p SelectedValue                   Where p   gt  p    null                   Select o   gt  o GetType                     Where t   gt  t IsEnum                   DistinctUntilChanged                    ObserveOn RxApp MainThreadScheduler                   Subscribe FillItems                      private void FillItems Type enumType                        List lt KeyValuePair lt object  string gt  gt  values   new List lt KeyValuePair lt object string gt  gt                  foreach  var idx in EnumUtils EnumToList enumType                                 values Add new KeyValuePair lt object  string gt  idx Item1  idx Item2                               this ItemsSource   values Select o  gt o Key ToString    ToList                 UpdateLayout                this ItemsSource   values              this DisplayMemberPath    Value               this SelectedValuePath    Key                        You also need to set the style correctly in Generic XAML or your box won t render anything and you will pull your hair out    lt Style TargetType   x Type local EnumComboBox   BasedOn   StaticResource  x Type ComboBox    gt   lt  Style gt    and that is that  This could obviously be extended to support i18n but would make the post longer

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I wouldn t recommend implementing this as it is but hopefully this can inspire a good solution   Let s say your enum is Foo  Then you can do something like this   public class FooViewModel   ViewModel       private int  fooValue       public int FooValue               get   gt   fooValue          set                        fooValue   value              OnPropertyChange                OnPropertyChange nameof Foo                OnPropertyChange nameof FooName                        public Foo Foo                 get   gt   Foo FooValue           set                          fooValue    int value              OnPropertyChange                OnPropertyChange nameof FooValue                OnPropertyChange nameof FooName                         public string FooName   get   gt  Enum GetName typeof Foo   Foo          public FooViewModel Foo foo                Foo   foo            Then on Window Load method you can load all enums to an ObservableCollection lt FooViewModel gt  which you can set as the DataContext of the combobox

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I used another solution using MarkupExtension    I made class which provides items source   public class EnumToItemsSource   MarkupExtension       private readonly Type  type       public EnumToItemsSource Type type                 type   type             public override object ProvideValue IServiceProvider serviceProvider                return Enum GetValues  type               Cast lt object gt                 Select e   gt  new   Value    int e  DisplayName   e ToString                That s almost all    Now use it in XAML        lt ComboBox DisplayMemberPath  DisplayName            ItemsSource   persons EnumToItemsSource  x Type enums States              SelectedValue   Binding Path WhereEverYouWant             SelectedValuePath  Value    gt   Change  enums States  to your enum

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There are many excellent answers to this question and I humbly submit mine   I find that mine is somewhat simpler and more elegant  It requires only a value converter   Given an enum     public enum ImageFormat        Description  Windows Bitmap        BMP       Description  Graphics Interchange Format        GIF       Description  Joint Photographic Experts Group Format        JPG       Description  Portable Network Graphics Format        PNG       Description  Tagged Image Format        TIFF       Description  Windows Media Photo Format        WDP     and a value converter     public class ImageFormatValueConverter   IValueConverter       public object Convert object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                if  value is ImageFormat format                        return GetString format                      return null             public object ConvertBack object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture                if  value is string s                        return Enum Parse typeof ImageFormat   s Substring 0  s IndexOf                           return null             public string   Strings   gt  GetStrings         public static string GetString ImageFormat format                return format ToString            GetDescription format              public static string GetDescription ImageFormat format                return format GetType   GetMember format ToString    0  GetCustomAttribute lt DescriptionAttribute gt    Description             public static string   GetStrings                 List lt string gt  list   new List lt string gt             foreach  ImageFormat format in Enum GetValues typeof ImageFormat                          list Add GetString format                       return list ToArray              resources          lt local ImageFormatValueConverter x Key  ImageFormatValueConverter   gt    XAML declaration          lt ComboBox Grid Row  9  ItemsSource   Binding Source  StaticResource ImageFormatValueConverter   Path Strings                 SelectedItem   Binding Format  Converter  StaticResource ImageFormatValueConverter     gt    View model         private ImageFormat  imageFormat   ImageFormat JPG      public ImageFormat Format               get   gt   imageFormat          set                       if   imageFormat    value                                 imageFormat   value                  OnPropertyChanged                                    Resulting combobox

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If you are binding to an actual enum property on your ViewModel  not a int representation of an enum  things get tricky   I found it is necessary to bind to the string representation  NOT the int value as is expected in all of the above examples   You can tell if this is the case by binding a simple textbox to the property you want to bind to on your ViewModel   If it shows text  bind to the string   If it shows a number  bind to the value  Note I have used Display twice which would normally be an error  but it s the only way it works    lt ComboBox SelectedValue   Binding ElementMap EdiDataType  Mode TwoWay                         DisplayMemberPath  Display                        SelectedValuePath  Display                        ItemsSource   Binding Source  core EnumToItemsSource  x Type edi EdiDataType       gt    Greg

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Universal apps seem to work a bit differently  it doesn t have all the power of full-featured XAML   What worked for me is    I created a list of the enum values as the enums  not converted to strings or to integers  and bound the ComboBox ItemsSource to that Then I could bind the ComboBox ItemSelected to my public property     whose type is the enum in question   Just for fun I whipped up a little templated class to help with this and published it to the MSDN Samples pages   The extra bits let me optionally override the names of the enums and to let me hide some of the enums   My code looks an awful like like Nick s  above   which I wish I had seen earlier

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You can do it from code by placing the following code in Window Loaded event handler  for example   yourComboBox ItemsSource   Enum GetValues typeof EffectStyle   Cast lt EffectStyle gt       If you need to bind it in XAML you need to use ObjectDataProvider to create object available as binding source    lt Window x Class  YourNamespace MainWindow          xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation          xmlns x  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml          xmlns System  clr-namespace System assembly mscorlib          xmlns StyleAlias  clr-namespace Motion VideoEffects  gt       lt Window Resources gt           lt ObjectDataProvider x Key  dataFromEnum  MethodName  GetValues                              ObjectType   x Type System Enum   gt               lt ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt                   lt x Type TypeName  StyleAlias EffectStyle   gt               lt  ObjectDataProvider MethodParameters gt           lt  ObjectDataProvider gt       lt  Window Resources gt       lt Grid gt           lt ComboBox ItemsSource   Binding Source  StaticResource dataFromEnum                      SelectedItem   Binding Path CurrentEffectStyle     gt       lt  Grid gt   lt  Window gt    Draw attention on the next code   xmlns System  clr-namespace System assembly mscorlib  xmlns StyleAlias  clr-namespace Motion VideoEffects    Guide how to map namespace and assembly you can read on MSDN

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You ll need to create an array of the values in the enum  which can be created by calling System Enum GetValues    passing it the Type of the enum that you want the items of   If you specify this for the ItemsSource property  then it should be populated with all of the enum s values  You probably want to bind SelectedItem to EffectStyle  assuming it is a  property of the same enum  and contains the current value

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It works very nice and simple  xaml  lt ComboBox ItemsSource  quot  Binding MyEnumArray  quot  gt    cs public Array MyEnumArray     get   return Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum

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I like for all objects that I m binding to be defined in my ViewModel  so I try to avoid using  lt ObjectDataProvider gt  in the xaml when possible   My solution uses no data defined in the View and no code-behind  Only a DataBinding  a reusable ValueConverter  a method to get a collection of descriptions for any Enum type  and a single property in the ViewModel to bind to   When I want to bind an Enum to a ComboBox the text I want to display never matches the values of the Enum  so I use the  Description    attribute to give it the text that I actually want to see in the ComboBox  If I had an enum of days of the week  it would look something like this   public enum DayOfWeek        add an optional blank value for default no selection    Description        NOT SET   0     Description  Sunday      SUNDAY     Description  Monday      MONDAY            First I created helper class with a couple methods to deal with enums  One method gets a description for a specific value  the other method gets all values and their descriptions for a type   public static class EnumHelper     public static string Description this Enum value          var attributes   value GetType   GetField value ToString    GetCustomAttributes typeof DescriptionAttribute   false       if  attributes Any          return  attributes First   as DescriptionAttribute  Description          If no description is found  the least we can do is replace underscores with spaces        You can add your own custom default formatting logic here     TextInfo ti   CultureInfo CurrentCulture TextInfo      return ti ToTitleCase ti ToLower value ToString   Replace                     public static IEnumerable lt ValueDescription gt  GetAllValuesAndDescriptions Type t          if   t IsEnum        throw new ArgumentException    nameof t   must be an enum type         return Enum GetValues t  Cast lt Enum gt    Select  e    gt  new ValueDescription     Value   e  Description   e Description      ToList            Next  we create a ValueConverter  Inheriting from MarkupExtension makes it easier to use in XAML so we don t have to declare it as a resource    ValueConversion typeof Enum   typeof IEnumerable lt ValueDescription gt     public class EnumToCollectionConverter   MarkupExtension  IValueConverter     public object Convert object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture          return EnumHelper GetAllValuesAndDescriptions value GetType           public object ConvertBack object value  Type targetType  object parameter  CultureInfo culture          return null        public override object ProvideValue IServiceProvider serviceProvider          return this          My ViewModel only needs 1 property that my View can bind to for both the SelectedValue and ItemsSource of the combobox   private DayOfWeek dayOfWeek   public DayOfWeek SelectedDay     get   return dayOfWeek      set         if  dayOfWeek    value              dayOfWeek   value        OnPropertyChanged nameof SelectedDay                  And finally to bind the ComboBox view  using the ValueConverter in the ItemsSource binding       lt ComboBox ItemsSource   Binding Path SelectedDay  Converter  x EnumToCollectionConverter   Mode OneTime             SelectedValuePath  Value            DisplayMemberPath  Description            SelectedValue   Binding Path SelectedDay     gt    To implement this solution you only need to copy my EnumHelper class and EnumToCollectionConverter class  They will work with any enums  Also  I didn t include it here  but the ValueDescription class is just a simple class with 2 public object properties  one called Value  one called Description  You can create that yourself or you can change the code to use a Tuple lt object  object gt  or KeyValuePair lt object  object gt

[c#] How to bind an enum to a combobox control in WPF?

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