Assigning a value to ComboBox Items

Question

I'm currently trying to make a drop box (Combobox) for currencies for a winform. Here's what I have so far:

But I noticed that there is a special option for the Databound version of a drop down box. So I was wondering if it was possible to create something similar to this without resorting to do a comparison against the entire string or creating a table in a database.

Answer 1

List and Comboboxes can contain objects rather than simply strings. Rather than defining the contents in the Designer, you can set a List(Of T) (among others) as the DataSource . This allows you to display one thing but fetch a different thing such as a value back.

This is so useful, it is not uncommon to have a simple NameValuePair class to translate a value or code into something user-friendly:

Public Class NVP
    Public Property Name As String
    Public Property Value As Integer

    Public Sub New(n As String, v As Integer)
        Name = n
        Value = v
    End Sub

    ' what these will display using .ToString:
    Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
        Return String.Format("{0} ({1})", Name, Value.ToString)
    End Function
End Class

Then the code to create a list of these and use it as the source for the combo:

Private myAList As List(Of NVP)
...
myAList = New List(Of NVP)

myAList.Add(New NVP("ziggy", 26))
myAList.Add(New NVP("able", 1))
myAList.Add(New NVP("charlie", 3))
myAList.Add(New NVP("echo", 5))

ComboBox1.DataSource = myAList
ComboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name"    ' property name to show the user
ComboBox1.ValueMember = "Value"     ' property name to use as the value

Then, using it:

Console.WriteLine("Selection Changed! Item: {0}  Value: {1}",
                   ComboBox1.SelectedItem.ToString,
                   ComboBox1.SelectedValue.ToString)

Output:

Selection Changed! Item: ziggy (26) Value: 26
Selection Changed! Item: charlie (3) Value: 3
Selection Changed! Item: able (1) Value: 1

Notes:
The benefit to the NameValuePair class is that it keep the data together (and easily accessed) rather then as separate items in different arrays.

The major benefit to using a DataSource , is that you do not need to make a copy of the data. Rather than copy the Name values from the list to the Items collection, the List/ComboBox uses the same ones that your code does.

SelectedItem returns an NVP object (as does .Items(n) ) but they are returned as Object so you need to cast it back to NameValuePair to access any properties:

thisItem = CType(ComboBox1.SelectedItem, NVP)
Console.WriteLine(thisItem.Name)

SelectedItem.ToString invokes the ToString method on our Type. It might simply print the Name or whatever you want.

If the list is dynamic - things get added and/or removed from it - then you will probably want to use a BiningList(of T) instead. Changes to the list will automatically appear in the control ( ListBox , ComboBox , DatagridView ).

If the list items are dynamic - {"ziggy", 26} might be changed to {"zulu", 98}, then your item class should implement INotifyPropertyChanged so those changes also automatically show in the UI control.