Combobox problem

[Dendei]

Hey i would like to know how i can use a combobox to show alternatives which i will choose from but with more information when i choose

like if a combobox has theese options

Klas
Maria
Mat

i choose Mat and the selected index is Mat

now i want it something like this

male - Klas - group1
female - Maria - group2
male - Mat - group1

i choose Maria and the selected index is Maria
so i dont have to cut the string up and divide and stuff can you use some kind of listview? how?
Thank you for answers
Dendei.

[Mike Askew]

The DisplayMember and ValueMember settings of the combo-box allow you to make the display value different to the selected one.

[Dendei]

mhm yes thank you, i've been looking around some.
anyone know a good guide about this comboboxes and datatables linked to it and displayMember and ValueMember?
how do i fill in the alternatives? and stuff?

[Mike Askew]

In my experience with listboxes (they use the same fields)

You bind the datatable as the datasource of the combobox, then give the column names for the displaymember and valuemember as required.

[Dendei]

still dont know how to start xD anyone have a decent guide on this?

[Mike Askew]

Let me see if I can find some old code I've written..

[Mike Askew]

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data.OleDb;

namespace DaniWebWinForm
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        DataSet DS = new DataSet();
        bool FormLoading = false;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            FormLoading = true;
            DS.Tables.Add("NameTable"); //Setup table holding names

            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("NameID"); // Primary key
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("Name");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("Age");

            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(1, "Mike Jobs", "23");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(2, "Jack Starling", "24");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(3, "Sam Eker", "16");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(4, "Dani West", "20");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(5, "Steve Marvin", "31");

            comboBox1.DataSource = DS.Tables["NameTable"];
            comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";
            comboBox1.ValueMember = "NameID";
            FormLoading = false;
        }

        private void comboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!FormLoading)
                MessageBox.Show(comboBox1.SelectedValue.ToString());
        }


    }
}

Simple WinForms App using one combo box.

Everytime you select a name from the combo box it will display the NameID field value related to that name. Hope that helps you understand :)

[Dendei]

yes thank you easy to follow and nice :)

[Dendei]

tested your code but should'nt the age of the people be showing aswell in the combobox? and is there a way yo show the colums over

name age
mike jobs 23

? :)

[Mike Askew]

Nope the combo box was set to display the name only using the line: comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";, I added the Age field simply so I didnt just make two columns and assign each to a property.

Give me a couple of mins to have a play and I'll see :)

[Dendei]

hehe tried to just comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name" + "age"; and stuff but nono :P
but yea would be nice to be able to show more so the user gets more information before choosing, and when they choose get the "NameID" to work with

[Mike Askew]

Yeap I've tried that too! :p

[Dendei]

seems like comboBox1.DisplayMember only takes one member :/ maybe need to make different Displaymembers somehow? :D

[Dendei]

comboBox1.DisplayMember = DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.ToString(); dont work
I dont think im getting closer xD

[Mike Askew]

Hmm it all depends on whether or not your able to edit the DataTables as to how you approach this.

Its either add a new column to the datatable which contains a concatenation of the data you wish to display or write a custom class that overrides the combobox. Which I know there is code for on google because I've just looked at it :)

[Dendei]

i guess i can
string Display = name + " - " + age + " - " + gender;
DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add(Display);
something like that? since it just display anyway i can do what ever and use
valuemember in my other code :)

[Dendei]

hmm have to go but i will continue look into this soon, thank you for all help MikeyIsMe!

[Mike Askew]

Yeap can do it exactly that way. Adaption to my code above would appear as the following:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data.OleDb;

namespace DaniWebWinForm
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        DataSet DS = new DataSet();
        bool FormLoading = false;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            FormLoading = true;
            DS.Tables.Add("NameTable"); //Setup table holding names

            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("NameID"); // Primary key
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("Name");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("Age");

            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(1, "Mike Jobs", "23");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(2, "Jack Starling", "24");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(3, "Sam Eker", "16");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(4, "Dani West", "20");
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Rows.Add(5, "Steve Marvin", "31");

            // Adding the new column and programatically assigning the value
            DS.Tables["NameTable"].Columns.Add("ConCatInfo", typeof(string), "Name + ' | ' + Age");

            comboBox1.DataSource = DS.Tables["NameTable"];
            comboBox1.DisplayMember = "ConCatInfo";
            comboBox1.ValueMember = "NameID";
            FormLoading = false;
        }

        private void comboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!FormLoading)
                MessageBox.Show(comboBox1.SelectedValue.ToString());
        }


    }
}

With regards to displaying the column headers above, you can just use a label and space out the entries :)

[Dendei]

getting it to work somehow now :) got stuck forever because needed to fix the text order abit :D

comboBox1.DataSource = DS.Tables["NameTable"];
comboBox1.DisplayMember = "ConCatInfo";
comboBox1.ValueMember = "NameID";

the program didnt like when you created the Datasource link to the box before setting the Display and Value member first :)
so works nice now with

comboBox1.DisplayMember = "ConCatInfo";
comboBox1.ValueMember = "NameID"; 
comboBox1.DataSource = DS.Tables["NameTable"];

[Dendei]

MikeyIsMe - "With regards to displaying the column headers above, you can just use a label and space out the entries :)"

But if i have different long names and such it will look like crap? :D maybe i can do a row that cant be selected as headers somehow?

[Mike Askew]

Ummm.. It would look odd yes.

I dont know of a way to specifically add a header entry.

[Dendei]

been looking at this link Click Here
but got very complex :/ and the demo project didnt work for me that they posted :/

[Mike Askew]

Yeap I've seen that link also, it is pretty complex. Hence why I didnt look that much into it :)

[Dendei]

mhm yea :P well it would look good but dont know if its worth the truble at this point xD but i guess if i want to take it to the next step, that is the way to go :)
thank you again for your help