Reputation:

How do I set the selected item in a comboBox to match my string using C#?

I have a string "test1" and my comboBox contains test1, test2, and test3. How do I set the selected item to "test1"? That is, how do I match my string to one of the comboBox items?

I was thinking of the line below, but this doesn't work.

comboBox1.SelectedText = "test1";

Upvotes: 238

Answers (27)

Aurora

Reputation: 422

if you are binding Datasource via Dataset, then you should use "SelectedValue"

cmbCategoryList.SelectedValue = (int)dsLookUp.Tables[0].Select("WHERE PRODUCTCATEGORYID = 1")[0]["ID"];

Upvotes: 1

Grant Johnson

Reputation: 327

I know this isn't what the OP asked but could it be that they don't know? There are already several answers here so even though this is lengthy I thought it could be useful to the community.

Using an enum to fill a combo box allows for easy use of the SelectedItem method to programmatically select items in the combobox as well as loading and reading from the combobox.

public enum Tests
    {
        Test1,
        Test2,
        Test3,
        None
    }

// Fill up combobox with all the items in the Tests enum
    foreach (var test in Enum.GetNames(typeof(Tests)))
    {
        cmbTests.Items.Add(test);
    }

    // Select combobox item programmatically
    cmbTests.SelectedItem = Tests.None.ToString();

If you double click the combo box you can handle the selected index changed event:

private void cmbTests_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!Enum.TryParse(cmbTests.Text, out Tests theTest))
    {
        MessageBox.Show($"Unable to convert {cmbTests.Text} to a valid member of the Tests enum");
        return;
    }

    switch (theTest)
    {
        case Tests.Test1:
            MessageBox.Show("Running Test 1");
            break;

        case Tests.Test2:
            MessageBox.Show("Running Test 2");
            break;

        case Tests.Test3:
            MessageBox.Show("Running Test 3");
            break;

        case Tests.None:

            // Do nothing

            break;

        default:
            MessageBox.Show($"No support for test {theTest}.  Please add");
            return;
    }
}

You can then run tests from a button click handler event:

 private void btnRunTest1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        cmbTests.SelectedItem = Tests.Test1.ToString();
    }

Upvotes: 1

Jos Roestenberg

Reputation: 21

Find mySecondObject (of type MyObject) in combobox (containing a list of MyObjects) and select the item:

foreach (MyObject item in comboBox.Items)
{
   if (item.NameOrID == mySecondObject.NameOrID)
    {
        comboBox.SelectedItem = item;
        break;
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

Muhammad Sohail

Reputation: 878

ComboBox1.SelectedIndex= ComboBox1.FindString("Matching String");

Try this in windows Form.

Upvotes: 19

Jaydeep Karena

Reputation: 159

this works for me.....

comboBox.DataSource.To<DataTable>().Select(" valueMember = '" + valueToBeSelected + "'")[0]["DislplayMember"];

Upvotes: 1

Nishan

Reputation: 4421

You can say comboBox1.Text = comboBox1.Items[0].ToString();

Upvotes: -1

Monzur

Reputation: 1435

I have created a Function which will return the Index of the Value

        public static int SelectByValue(ComboBox comboBox, string value)
        {
            int i = 0;
            for (i = 0; i <= comboBox.Items.Count - 1; i++)
            {
                DataRowView cb;
                cb = (DataRowView)comboBox.Items[i];
                if (cb.Row.ItemArray[0].ToString() == value)// Change the 0 index if your want to Select by Text as 1 Index
                {
                    return i;
                }
            }
            return -1;
        }

Upvotes: 1

gangus

Reputation: 103

All methods, tricks, and lines of code setting ComboBox item will not work until the ComboBox has a parent.

Upvotes: 1

Deepak kumar

Reputation: 1

It should work

Yourcomboboxname.setselecteditem("yourstring");

And if you want to set database string use this

Comboboxname.setselecteditem(ps.get string("databasestring"));

Upvotes: -2

Amit Bhagat

Reputation: 4300

I used KeyValuePair for ComboBox data bind and I wanted to find item by value so this worked in my case:

comboBox.SelectedItem = comboBox.Items.Cast<KeyValuePair<string,string>>().First(item=> item.Value == "value to match");

Upvotes: 2

Roman Polen.

Reputation: 559

This solution is based on MSDN with some modifications I made.

It finds exact or PART of string and sets it.

private int lastMatch = 0;
private void textBoxSearch_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Set our intial index variable to -1.
    int x = 0;
    string match = textBoxSearch.Text;
    // If the search string is empty set to begining of textBox
    if (textBoxSearch.Text.Length != 0)
    {
        bool found = true;
        while (found)
        {
            if (comboBoxSelect.Items.Count == x)
            {
                comboBoxSelect.SelectedIndex = lastMatch;
                found = false;
            }
            else
            {
                comboBoxSelect.SelectedIndex = x;
                match = comboBoxSelect.SelectedValue.ToString();
                if (match.Contains(textBoxSearch.Text))
                {
                    lastMatch = x;
                    found = false;
                }
                x++;
            }
        }
    }
    else
        comboBoxSelect.SelectedIndex = 0;
}

I hope I helped!

Upvotes: 5

gabore

Reputation: 353

For me this worked only:

foreach (ComboBoxItem cbi in someComboBox.Items)
{
    if (cbi.Content as String == "sometextIntheComboBox")
    {
        someComboBox.SelectedItem = cbi;
        break;
    }
}

MOD: and if You have your own objects as items set up in the combobox, then substitute the ComboBoxItem with one of them like:

foreach (Debitor d in debitorCombo.Items)
{
    if (d.Name == "Chuck Norris")
    {
        debitorCombo.SelectedItem = d;
        break;
    }
}

Upvotes: 14

user53378

Reputation: 160

Enumerate ListItems in combobox
Get equal ones listindex set combobox
Set listindex to the found one.

But if I see such a code as a code reviewer, I would recommend to reconsider all the method algorithm.

Upvotes: 2

Frederik Gheysels

Reputation: 56934

If the items in your ComboBox are strings, you can try:

comboBox1.SelectedItem = "test1";

Upvotes: 45

dave

Reputation: 2371

I've used an extension method:

public static void SelectItemByValue(this ComboBox cbo, string value)
{
    for(int i=0; i < cbo.Items.Count; i++)
    {
        var prop = cbo.Items[i].GetType().GetProperty(cbo.ValueMember);
        if (prop!=null && prop.GetValue(cbo.Items[i], null).ToString() == value)
        {
             cbo.SelectedIndex = i;
             break;
        }
    } 
}

Then just consume the method:

ddl.SelectItemByValue(value);

Upvotes: 11

Anderson

Reputation: 21

combo.Items.FindByValue("1").Selected = true;

Upvotes: 1

HuynhDo

Reputation: 1

Please try this way, it works for me:

Combobox1.items[Combobox1.selectedIndex] = "replaced text";

Upvotes: -2

ihcarp

Reputation: 105

Supposing test1, test2, test3 belong to comboBox1 collection following statement will work.

comboBox1.SelectedIndex = 0;

Upvotes: 5

user874163

Reputation: 27

  ListItem li = DropDownList.Items.FindByValue("13001");
  DropDownList.SelectedIndex = ddlCostCenter.Items.IndexOf(li);

For your case you can use

DropDownList.Items.FindByText("Text");

Upvotes: 1

Jelle Smits

Reputation: 59

I've filled my ComboBox with een DataTable filled from a database. Then I've set the DisplayMember and the ValueMember. And I use this code to set the selected item.

foreach (DataRowView Row in ComboBox1.Items)
{
    if (Row["ColumnName"].ToString() == "Value") ComboBox1.SelectedItem = Row;
}

Upvotes: 5

Ben

Reputation: 69

comboBox1.SelectedItem.Text = "test1";

Upvotes: 6

Andrew Kennan

Reputation: 14157

Have you tried the Text property? It works for me.

ComboBox1.Text = "test1";

The SelectedText property is for the selected portion of the editable text in the textbox part of the combo box.

Upvotes: 222

Brian Rudolph

Reputation: 6308

SelectedText is to get or set the actual text in the string editor for the selected item in the combobox as documented here . This goes uneditable if you set:

comboBox1.DropDownStyle = System.Windows.Forms.ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList;

Use:

comboBox1.SelectedItem = "test1";

or:

comboBox1.SelectedIndex = comboBox1.Items.IndexOf("test1");

Upvotes: 10

Norbert B.

Reputation: 5730

This should do the trick:

Combox1.SelectedIndex = Combox1.FindStringExact("test1")

Upvotes: 336

Dean

Reputation: 65

_cmbTemplates.SelectedText = "test1"

or maybe

_cmbTemplates.SelectedItem= _cmbTemplates.Items.Equals("test1");

Upvotes: 2

Spence

Reputation: 29332

Assuming that your combobox isn't databound you would need to find the object's index in the "items" collection on your form and then set the "selectedindex" property to the appropriate index.

comboBox1.SelectedIndex = comboBox1.Items.IndexOf("test1");

Keep in mind that the IndexOf function may throw an argumentexception if the item isn't found.

Upvotes: 52

Megacan

Reputation: 2518

You don't have that property in the ComboBox. You have SelectedItem or SelectedIndex. If you have the objects you used to fill the combo box then you can use SelectedItem.

If not you can get the collection of items (property Items) and iterate that until you get the value you want and use that with the other properties.

hope it helps.

Upvotes: 2

How do I set the selected item in a comboBox to match my string using C#?

Answers (27)

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