c# combobox binding to list of objects

Question

Is it possible to bind a ComboBox to a list of objects, but have the selectedvalue property point to the object, not a property of the object?

I only ask because we have some Business Objects which have references to other objects - such as a 'Year' object. That year object may need to be switched out for another year object.

---

Only solution I can come up with is to have another class with a single property, in this case pointing to a year object. then bind the combobox to a List of these and set both the display and value members to the single property.

But doing that for any 'lookups' we have seems like a bit of a pain??

Answer 1

If you set the ValueMember to null the selected value will always be the object, not a property:

{
    public class TestObject
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Value { get; set; }
    }
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox comboBox1;

        public Form1()
        {
            this.comboBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // comboBox1
            // 
            this.comboBox1.FormattingEnabled = true;
            this.comboBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(23, 13);
            this.comboBox1.Name = "comboBox1";
            this.comboBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(121, 21);
            this.comboBox1.TabIndex = 0;
            this.comboBox1.SelectedValueChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.comboBox1_SelectedValueChanged);
            // 
            // Form1
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(284, 262);
            this.Controls.Add(this.comboBox1);
            this.Name = "Form1";
            this.Text = "Form1";
            this.ResumeLayout(false);

            BindingList<TestObject> objects = new BindingList<TestObject>();
            for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
            {
                objects.Add(new TestObject() { Name = "Object " + i.ToString(), Value = i });
            }
            comboBox1.ValueMember = null;
            comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";
            comboBox1.DataSource = objects;
        }

        private void comboBox1_SelectedValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (comboBox1.SelectedValue != null)
            {
                TestObject current = (TestObject)comboBox1.SelectedValue;
                MessageBox.Show(current.Value.ToString());
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You can bind a ComboBox to any list of values using the DataSource property. Or actually:

An object that implements the IList interface, such as a DataSet or an Array. The default is null.

You then use the ValueMember to control what you get from SelectedValue . Settings this to null as jmservera writes lets you get the object as it is in the DataSource .