Binding an enum to a WinForms combo box, and then setting it

Question

a lot of people have answered the question of how to bind an enum to a combo box in WinForms. Its like this:

comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(MyE         


        

Answer 1

Try:

comboBox1.SelectedItem = MyEnum.Something;

EDITS:

Whoops, you've tried that already. However, it worked for me when my comboBox was set to be a DropDownList.

Here is my full code which works for me (with both DropDown and DropDownList):

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public enum BlahEnum
    { 
        Red,
        Green,
        Blue,
        Purple
    }

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(BlahEnum));

    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        comboBox1.SelectedItem = BlahEnum.Blue;
    }
}

Answer 2

Convert the enum to a list of string and add this to the comboBox

comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(SomeEnum)).Cast<SomeEnum>();

Set the displayed value using selectedItem

comboBox1.SelectedItem = SomeEnum.SomeValue;

Answer 3

    public enum Colors
    {
        Red = 10,
        Blue = 20,
        Green = 30,
        Yellow = 40,
    }

comboBox1.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Colors));

Full Source...Binding an enum to Combobox

Answer 4

This is probably never going to be seen among all the other responses, but this is the code I came up with, this has the benefit of using the DescriptionAttribute if it exists, but otherwise using the name of the enum value itself.

I used a dictionary because it has a ready made key/value item pattern. A List<KeyValuePair<string,object>> would also work and without the unnecessary hashing, but a dictionary makes for cleaner code.

I get members that have a MemberType of Field and that are literal. This creates a sequence of only members that are enum values. This is robust since an enum cannot have other fields.

public static class ControlExtensions
{
    public static void BindToEnum<TEnum>(this ComboBox comboBox)
    {
        var enumType = typeof(TEnum);

        var fields = enumType.GetMembers()
                              .OfType<FieldInfo>()
                              .Where(p => p.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field)
                              .Where(p => p.IsLiteral)
                              .ToList();

        var valuesByName = new Dictionary<string, object>();

        foreach (var field in fields)
        {
            var descriptionAttribute = field.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false) as DescriptionAttribute;

            var value = (int)field.GetValue(null);
            var description = string.Empty;

            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(descriptionAttribute?.Description))
            {
                description = descriptionAttribute.Description;
            }
            else
            {
                description = field.Name;
            }

            valuesByName[description] = value;
        }

        comboBox.DataSource = valuesByName.ToList();
        comboBox.DisplayMember = "Key";
        comboBox.ValueMember = "Value";
    }


}

Answer 5

Based on the answer from @Amir Shenouda I end up with this:

Enum's definition:

public enum Status { Active = 0, Canceled = 3 }; 

Setting the drop down values from it:

cbStatus.DataSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Status));

Getting the enum from the selected item:

Status? status = cbStatus.SelectedValue as Status?;

Answer 6

You can use a extension method

 public static void EnumForComboBox(this ComboBox comboBox, Type enumType)
 {
     var memInfo = enumType.GetMembers().Where(a => a.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field).ToList();
     comboBox.Items.Clear();
     foreach (var member in memInfo)
     {
         var myAttributes = member.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
         var description = (DescriptionAttribute)myAttributes;
         if (description != null)
         {
             if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(description.Description))
             {
                 comboBox.Items.Add(description.Description);
                 comboBox.SelectedIndex = 0;
                 comboBox.DropDownStyle = ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList;
             }
         }   
     }
 }

How to use ... Declare enum

using System.ComponentModel;

public enum CalculationType
{
    [Desciption("LoaderGroup")]
    LoaderGroup,
    [Description("LadingValue")]
    LadingValue,
    [Description("PerBill")]
    PerBill
}

This method show description in Combo box items

combobox1.EnumForComboBox(typeof(CalculationType));