How do I set the column names in a DataTable as a datasource to a ComboBox?

[tombihn]

I'm trying to setup a form to search for data within an existing DataTable. Please help me fill in the blanks below:

FilterColumnsComboBox.DataSource = WOTable.Columns?
FilterColumnsComboBox.DisplayMember = ???
FilterColumnsComboBox.ValueMember = ???

I could hard-code in the column names ("WO_Number",WO_CustID","CustLastName", etc...), but would prefer to pick this up dynamically (partly because I want to reuse this code later).

Thanks in advance.

 

[jmcilhinney]

Are you saying that you want to display the column names from a DataTable in a ComboBox? If so then your DataSource is correct. The Columns property returns a DataColumnCollection, which contains DataColumn objects. The DataColumn class has a ColumnName property, which returns the name of the column. As such, both your DisplayMember and ValueMember should be "ColumnName".

By the way, you should almost universally set the DisplayMember and ValueMember before the DataSource.

 

[tombihn]

Thanks for the reply and the tip regarding best practices.

I am still getting the following error:

"Complex DataBinding accepts as a data source either an IList or an IListSource"

Here is my current code now:

            FilterColumns.DisplayMember = "ColumnName"
            FilterColumns.ValueMember = "ColumnName"
            FilterColumns.DataSource = woTable.Columns

 

[jmcilhinney]

That's interesting. I always assumed that the DataColumnCollection class, which is the type of DataTable.Columns, implemented the IList interface but, as it turns out, it only implements ICollection. That's bizarre because it actually does have an Item property.

Anyway, as the error message says, you need an IList in order to data-bind. An IListSource is simply a source for an IList, so it amounts to the same thing in the end. That's nice and easy, thanks to LINQ. Just change this:

FilterColumns.DataSource = woTable.Columns

to this:

FilterColumns.DataSource = woTable.Columns.Cast(Of DataColumn)().ToArray()

 

[tombihn]

Awesome! That worked great. I need to do some reading now on lists and enumerations in .Net.

Much appreciated.