Bind Combobox with Enum Description

Question

I have seen through Stackoverflow that there is an easy way to populate a combobox with an Enumeration:

cbTipos.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(TiposTrabajo))         


        

Answer 1

Here is what I came up with since I needed to set the default as well.

public static void BindEnumToCombobox<T>(this ComboBox comboBox, T defaultSelection)
{
    var list = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T))
        .Cast<T>()
        .Select(value => new
        {
            Description = (Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString()), typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute)?.Description ?? value.ToString(),
            Value = value
        })
        .OrderBy(item => item.Value.ToString())
        .ToList();

    comboBox.DataSource = list;
    comboBox.DisplayMember = "Description";
    comboBox.ValueMember = "Value";

    foreach (var opts in list)
    {
        if (opts.Value.ToString() == defaultSelection.ToString())
        {
            comboBox.SelectedItem = opts;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

cmbFileType.BindEnumToCombobox<FileType>(FileType.Table);

Where cmbFileType is the ComboBox and FileType is the enum.

Answer 2

Try this:

cbTipos.DisplayMember = "Description";
cbTipos.ValueMember = "Value";
cbTipos.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(TiposTrabajo))
    .Cast<Enum>()
    .Select(value => new
    {
        (Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString()), typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute).Description,
        value
    })
    .OrderBy(item => item.value)
    .ToList();

In order for this to work, all the values must have a description or you'll get a NullReference Exception. Hope that helps.