Binding an enum to a WinForms combo box and then setting it

Question

a lot of people have answered the question of how to bind an enum to a combo box in WinForms  Its like this   comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum      But that is pretty useless without being able to set the actual value to display   I have tried   comboBox1 SelectedItem   MyEnum Something     Does not work  SelectedItem remains null   I have also tried   comboBox1 SelectedIndex   Convert ToInt32 MyEnum Something      ArgumentOutOfRangeException  SelectedIndex remains -1   Does anyone have any ideas how to do this

User · Answer

The code  comboBox1 SelectedItem   MyEnum Something    is ok  the problem must reside in the DataBinding  DataBinding assignments occur after the constructor  mainly the first time the combobox is shown  Try to set the value in the Load event  For example  add this code   protected override void OnLoad EventArgs e        base OnLoad e       comboBox1 SelectedItem   MyEnum Something      And check if it works

User · Answer

You can use a list of KeyValuePair values as the datasource for the combobox  You will need a helper method where you can specify the enum type and it returns IEnumerable  where int is the value of enum and string is the name of the enum value  In your combobox  set  DisplayMember property to  Key  and ValueMember property to  Value   Value and Key are public  properties of KeyValuePair structure  Then when you set SelectedItem property to an enum value like you are doing  it should work

User · Answer

Try   comboBox1 SelectedItem   MyEnum Something    EDITS   Whoops  you ve tried that already  However  it worked for me when my comboBox was set to be a DropDownList    Here is my full code which works for me  with both DropDown and DropDownList    public partial class Form1   Form       public enum BlahEnum                Red          Green          Blue          Purple            public Form1                 InitializeComponent             comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof BlahEnum                private void button1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                comboBox1 SelectedItem   BlahEnum Blue

User · Answer

Generic method for setting a enum as datasource for drop downs  Display would be name  Selected value would be Enum itself  public IList lt KeyValuePair lt string  T gt  gt  GetDataSourceFromEnum lt T gt    where T   struct IConvertible               IList lt KeyValuePair lt string  T gt  gt  list   new BindingList lt KeyValuePair lt string  T gt  gt             foreach  string value in Enum GetNames typeof T                          list Add new KeyValuePair lt string  T gt  value   T Enum Parse typeof T   value                       return list

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public enum Colors               Red   10          Blue   20          Green   30          Yellow   40         comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof Colors      Full Source   Binding an enum to Combobox

User · Answer

To simplify   First Initialize this command   e g  after InitalizeComponent     yourComboBox DataSource    Enum GetValues typeof YourEnum      To retrieve selected item on combobox   YourEnum enum    YourEnum  yourComboBox SelectedItem    If you want to set value for the combobox     yourComboBox SelectedItem   YourEnem Foo

User · Answer

comboBox1 SelectedItem   MyEnum Something    should work just fine     How can you tell that SelectedItem is null

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Based on the answer from  Amir Shenouda I end up with this   Enum s definition   public enum Status   Active   0  Canceled   3       Setting the drop down values from it   cbStatus DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof Status      Getting the enum from the selected item   Status  status   cbStatus SelectedValue as Status

User · Answer

That was always a problem  if you have a Sorted Enum  like from 0 to      public enum Test       one       Two       Three  End   you can bind names to combobox and instead of using  SelectedValue property use  SelectedIndex     Combobox DataSource   System Enum GetNames GetType test     and the  Dim x as byte   0 Combobox Selectedindex x

User · Answer

Try this      fill list MyEnumDropDownList DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum        binding MyEnumDropDownList DataBindings Add new Binding  SelectedValue   StoreObject   StoreObjectMyEnumField       StoreObject is my object example with StoreObjectMyEnumField property for store MyEnum value

User · Answer

comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum     comboBox1 SelectedIndex    int MyEnum Something   comboBox1 SelectedIndex   Convert ToInt32 MyEnum Something     Both of these work for me are you sure there isn t something else wrong

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Old question perhaps here but I had the issue and the solution was easy and simple  I found this http   www c-sharpcorner com UploadFile mahesh 1220   It makes use of the databining and works nicely so check it out

User · Answer

I use the following helper method  which you can bind to your list            lt summary gt          Returns enumeration as a sortable list           lt  summary gt           lt param name  t  gt GetType some enumeration  lt  param gt      Public Shared Function GetEnumAsList ByVal t As Type  As SortedList Of String  Integer           If Not t IsEnum Then             Throw New ArgumentException  Type is not an enumeration            End If          Dim items As New SortedList Of String  Integer          Dim enumValues As Integer      Enum  GetValues t          Dim enumNames As String      Enum  GetNames t           For i As Integer   0 To enumValues GetUpperBound 0              items Add enumNames i   enumValues i           Next          Return items      End Function

User · Answer

only use casting this way   if  YouEnum ComboBoxControl SelectedItem    YouEnum Espa  ol         TODO  type you code here

User · Answer

This worked for me   comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum    comboBox1 SelectedIndex   comboBox1 FindStringExact MyEnum something ToString

User · Answer

You can use a extension method   public static void EnumForComboBox this ComboBox comboBox  Type enumType          var memInfo   enumType GetMembers   Where a   gt  a MemberType    MemberTypes Field  ToList         comboBox Items Clear         foreach  var member in memInfo                  var myAttributes   member GetCustomAttribute typeof DescriptionAttribute   false            var description    DescriptionAttribute myAttributes           if  description    null                          if   string IsNullOrEmpty description Description                                   comboBox Items Add description Description                    comboBox SelectedIndex   0                   comboBox DropDownStyle   ComboBoxStyle DropDownList                                           How to use     Declare enum   using System ComponentModel   public enum CalculationType        Desciption  LoaderGroup        LoaderGroup       Description  LadingValue        LadingValue       Description  PerBill        PerBill     This method show description in Combo box items  combobox1 EnumForComboBox typeof CalculationType

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public static void FillByEnumOrderByNumber lt TEnum gt  this System Windows Forms ListControl ctrl  TEnum enum1  bool showValueInDisplay   true  where TEnum   struct               if   typeof TEnum  IsEnum  throw new ArgumentException  An Enumeration type is required     enumObj             var values   from TEnum enumValue in Enum GetValues typeof TEnum                        select                         new                          KeyValuePair lt TEnum  string gt      enumValue   enumValue ToString              ctrl DataSource   values              OrderBy x   gt  x Key                ToList             ctrl DisplayMember    Value           ctrl ValueMember    Key            ctrl SelectedValue   enum1            public static void  FillByEnumOrderByName lt TEnum gt  this System Windows Forms ListControl ctrl  TEnum enum1  bool showValueInDisplay   true    where TEnum   struct               if   typeof TEnum  IsEnum  throw new ArgumentException  An Enumeration type is required     enumObj             var values   from TEnum enumValue in Enum GetValues typeof TEnum                        select                          new                           KeyValuePair lt TEnum string gt     enumValue    enumValue ToString                ctrl DataSource   values              OrderBy x  gt x Value               ToList             ctrl DisplayMember    Value           ctrl ValueMember    Key            ctrl SelectedValue   enum1

User · Answer

Let s say you have the following enum  public enum Numbers  Zero   0  One  Two     You need to have a struct to map those values to a string   public struct EntityName       public Numbers  num      public string  caption       public EntityName Numbers type  string caption                 num   type           caption   caption             public Numbers GetNumber                  return  num             public override string ToString                 return  caption            Now return an array of objects with all the enums mapped to a string   public object   GetNumberNameRange         return new object                 new EntityName Number Zero   Zero is chosen            new EntityName Number One   One is chosen            new EntityName Number Two   Two is chosen              And use the following to populate your combo box   ComboBox numberCB   new ComboBox    numberCB Items AddRange GetNumberNameRange       Create a function to retrieve the enum type just in case you want to pass it to a function  public Numbers GetConversionType          EntityName type    EntityName numberComboBox SelectedItem      return type GetNumber                   and then you should be ok

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In Framework 4 you can use the following code   To bind MultiColumnMode enum to combobox for example   cbMultiColumnMode Properties Items AddRange typeof MultiColumnMode  GetEnumNames       and to get selected index   MultiColumnMode multiColMode    MultiColumnMode cbMultiColumnMode SelectedIndex    note  I use DevExpress combobox in this example  you can do the same in Win Form Combobox

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At the moment I am using the Items property rather than the DataSource  it means I have to call Add for each enum value  but its a small enum  and its temporary code anyway   Then I can just do the Convert ToInt32 on the value and set it with SelectedIndex   Temporary solution  but YAGNI for now   Cheers for the ideas  I will probably use them when I do the proper version after getting a round of customer feedback

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Convert the enum to a list of string and add this to the comboBox  comboBox1 DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof SomeEnum   Cast lt SomeEnum gt       Set the displayed value using selectedItem  comboBox1 SelectedItem   SomeEnum SomeValue

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You could use the  FindString    functions   Public Class Form1     Public Enum Test         pete         jack         fran         bill     End Enum     Private Sub Form1 Load ByVal sender As System Object  ByVal e As System EventArgs  Handles MyBase Load         ComboBox1 DataSource    Enum  GetValues GetType Test           ComboBox1 SelectedIndex   ComboBox1 FindStringExact  jack           ComboBox1 SelectedIndex   ComboBox1 FindStringExact Test jack ToString            ComboBox1 SelectedIndex   ComboBox1 FindStringExact  Enum  GetName GetType Test   Test jack           ComboBox1 SelectedItem   Test bill     End Sub End Class

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The Enum  public enum Status   Active   0  Canceled   3       Setting the drop down values from it  cbStatus DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof Status      Getting the enum from the selected item  Status status   Enum TryParse lt Status gt  cbStatus SelectedValue ToString    out status

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This is probably never going to be seen among all the other responses  but this is the code I came up with  this has the benefit of using the DescriptionAttribute if it exists  but otherwise using the name of the enum value itself    I used a dictionary because it has a ready made key value item pattern  A List lt KeyValuePair lt string object gt  gt  would also work and without the unnecessary hashing  but a dictionary makes for cleaner code   I get members that have a MemberType of Field and that are literal  This creates a sequence of only members that are enum values  This is robust since an enum cannot have other fields    public static class ControlExtensions       public static void BindToEnum lt TEnum gt  this ComboBox comboBox                var enumType   typeof TEnum            var fields   enumType GetMembers                                  OfType lt FieldInfo gt                                   Where p   gt  p MemberType    MemberTypes Field                                 Where p   gt  p IsLiteral                                 ToList             var valuesByName   new Dictionary lt string  object gt              foreach  var field in fields                        var descriptionAttribute   field GetCustomAttribute typeof DescriptionAttribute   false  as DescriptionAttribute               var value    int field GetValue null               var description   string Empty               if   string IsNullOrEmpty descriptionAttribute  Description                                 description   descriptionAttribute Description                            else                               description   field Name                             valuesByName description    value                     comboBox DataSource   valuesByName ToList            comboBox DisplayMember    Key           comboBox ValueMember    Value

User · Answer

A little late to this party     The SelectedValue ToString   method should pull in the DisplayedName    However this article DataBinding Enum and also With Descriptions shows a handy way to not only have that but instead you can add a custom description attribute to the enum and use it for your displayed value if you preferred  Very simple and easy and about 15 lines or so of code  unless you count the curly braces  for everything   It is pretty nifty code and you can make it an extension method to boot

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this is the solution to load item of enum in combobox    comboBox1 Items AddRange  Enum GetNames typeof Border3DStyle       And then use the enum item as text    toolStripStatusLabel1 BorderStyle    Border3DStyle Enum Parse typeof Border3DStyle  comboBox1 Text

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public Form1         InitializeComponent        comboBox DataSource   EnumWithName lt SearchType gt  ParseEnum        comboBox DisplayMember    Name      public class EnumWithName lt T gt        public string Name   get  set        public T Value   get  set         public static EnumWithName lt T gt    ParseEnum                 List lt EnumWithName lt T gt  gt  list   new List lt EnumWithName lt T gt  gt              foreach  object o in Enum GetValues typeof T                          list Add new EnumWithName lt T gt                                Name   Enum GetName typeof T   o  Replace                            Value    T o                                    return list ToArray             public enum SearchType       Value 1      Value 2

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None of these worked for me  but this did  and it had the added benefit of being able to have a better description for the name of each enum    I m not sure if it s due to  net updates or not  but regardless I think this is the best way   You ll need to add a reference to   using System ComponentModel   enum MyEnum        Description  Red Color        Red   10       Description  Blue Color        Blue   50              private void LoadCombobox                 cmbxNewBox DataSource   Enum GetValues typeof MyEnum                Cast lt Enum gt                 Select value   gt  new                                Attribute GetCustomAttribute value GetType   GetField value ToString     typeof DescriptionAttribute   as DescriptionAttribute  Description                  value                             OrderBy item   gt  item value               ToList            cmbxNewBox DisplayMember    Description           cmbxNewBox ValueMember    value           Then when you want to access the data use these two lines           Enum TryParse lt MyEnum gt  cmbxNewBox SelectedValue ToString    out MyEnum proc           int nValue    int proc

[c#] Binding an enum to a WinForms combo box, and then setting it

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