How do I bind a ComboBox so the displaymember is concat of 2 fields of source datatable?

Question

I\'d like to bind a ComboBox to a DataTable (I cannot alter its original schema)

cbo.DataSource = tbldata;
cbo.DataTextField = \"Na         


        

Answer 1

The easiest way is to create a new calculated column in the DataTable, using the Expression property :

tbldata.Columns.Add("FullName", typeof(string), "Name + ' ' + Surname");
...
cbo.DataTextField = "FullName";

Answer 2

Have a property in your class that is the concat of Name and Surname. And bind the DataTextField to this property.

In case you are binding it to a DataTable, you can add a new column to the DataTable whose values are concat of Name and Surname and bind it to the combo.

Answer 3

I would create a property on your data object then map that to the DataTextField

Data Object

public string FullName
{
  get { return Name + " " + Surname; }
}

Code-behind

cbo.DataSource = tbldata;
cbo.DataTextField = "FullName";
cbo.DataValueField = "GUID";
cbo.DataBind();

Answer 4

Or implement 'Format' event like this:

DataRow r = ((DataRowView)e.ListItem).Row;
e.Value = r[ "FirstName" ] + " - " + r[ "LastName" ];

Answer 5

Have a look at calculated columns using the Expression property of DataColumn.

Answer 6

You can register the combo binding event and iterate the items, setting each item text to the desired fields using the combobox item data item.