WPF - MVVM - ComboBox SelectedItem

Question

I have ViewModel(implemented INotifyPropertyChanged) in the background and class Category which has only one property of type string

Answer 1

From my little example:

Note: This is setting just a string (or a category from another list), but the basics should be same here:

Basically this is done:

private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    (this.DataContext as ComboBoxSampleViewModel).SelectCategory("Categorie 4");
}

Here is my XAML:

and in the ViewModel of the Window

class ComboBoxSampleViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
    {
        if (PropertyChanged != null)
        {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
        }
    }

    public CategoryList List { get; set; }

    public ComboBoxSampleViewModel()
    {
        this.List = new CategoryList();
        NodeCategory = List.Selected;
    }

    private ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel nodeCategory;
    public ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel NodeCategory
    {
        get
        {
            return nodeCategory;
        }
        set
        {
            nodeCategory = value;
            NotifyPropertyChanged("NodeCategory");
        }
    }

    internal void SelectCategory(string p)
    {
        this.List.SelectByName(p);
        this.NodeCategory = this.List.Selected;
    }
}

With the help of this little class:

public class CategoryList
{
    public ObservableCollection Categories { get; set; }
    public ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel Selected { get; set; }
    public CategoryList()
    {
        Categories = new ObservableCollection();

        var cat1 = new ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel() { Name = "Categorie 1" };
        var cat2 = new ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel() { Name = "Categorie 2" };
        var cat3 = new ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel() { Name = "Categorie 3" };
        var cat4 = new ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel() { Name = "Categorie 4" };

        Categories.Add(cat1);
        Categories.Add(cat2);
        Categories.Add(cat3);
        Categories.Add(cat4);

        this.Selected = cat3;
    }

    internal void SelectByName(string p)
    {
        this.Selected = this.Categories.Where(s => s.Name.Equals(p)).FirstOrDefault();
    }
}

And this Item ViewModel

public class ComboBoxSampleItemViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string info)
    {
        if (PropertyChanged != null)
        {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(info));
        }
    }

    private string name;

    public string Name 
    { 
        get
        {
            return name;
        }
        set
        {
            name = value;
            NotifyPropertyChanged("Name");
        }
    }
}