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

Let's say you have the following enum

public enum Numbers {Zero = 0, One, Two};

You need to have a struct to map those values to a string:

public struct EntityName
{
    public Numbers _num;
    public string _caption;

    public EntityName(Numbers type, string caption)
    {
        _num = type;
        _caption = caption;
    }

    public Numbers GetNumber() 
    {
        return _num;
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return _caption;
    }
}

Now return an array of objects with all the enums mapped to a string:

public object[] GetNumberNameRange()
{
    return new object[]
    {
        new EntityName(Number.Zero, "Zero is chosen"),
        new EntityName(Number.One, "One is chosen"),
        new EntityName(Number.Two, "Two is chosen")
    };
}

And use the following to populate your combo box:

ComboBox numberCB = new ComboBox();
numberCB.Items.AddRange(GetNumberNameRange());

Create a function to retrieve the enum type just in case you want to pass it to a function

public Numbers GetConversionType() 
{
    EntityName type = (EntityName)numberComboBox.SelectedItem;
    return type.GetNumber();           
}

and then you should be ok :)