03 Sep 2006

Selecting custom Objects from a ComboBox

Earlier this week someone asked me how he could select custom objects from a ComboBox. Here is the code he used

private void FillComboBoxPersons(List<person> persons) 
{
	this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Clear();
	this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Add( "-- Select Person -------------" );
	foreach ( Person person in persons ) 
	{
		this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Add( person.Name );
	}
	this.comboBoxPersons.SelectedIndex = 0;
}

In order to get the selected item he then used the SelectedIndex property to lookup the Person in a cache of the persons collection.

Here is an approach that doesn’t require you to have a cache of the collection (Since the persons are already stored in the items)

private void FillComboBoxPersons(List<person> persons) 
{
	this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Clear();
	this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Add( "-- Select Person -------------" );
	this.comboBoxPersons.DisplayMember = "Name";
	foreach ( Person person in persons ) 
	{
		this.comboBoxPersons.Items.Add( person );
	}
	this.comboBoxPersons.SelectedIndex = 0;
}

Now you can easily access the selected item through the SelectedValue property.

Tim Van Wassenhove

Selecting custom Objects from a ComboBox