Most Elegant Way to Set ComboBox by Value

Question

I'm usually doing web stuff so pardon any ignorance on the topic.

I'm trying to do the Load a combobox from the codebehind like this:

        using (var con = new SqlConnection(ConStr)) {
        try {
            var dt = new DataTable();
            var cmd = new SqlCommand("usp_SelectContactDropDown", con) {                           
            CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure };                                      

                var adapter = new SqlDataAdapter {SelectCommand = cmd};
                adapter.Fill(dt);
                ((ComboBox) Controls.Find(ddContact, true)[0]).DataSource = dt;
                ((ComboBox) Controls.Find(ddContact, true)[0]).DisplayMember = "DisplayText";
                ((ComboBox) Controls.Find(ddContact, true)[0]).ValueMember = "ID";
                ((ComboBox) Controls.Find(ddContact, true)[0]).SelectedIndex = -1;
            }
            catch (Exception ex) { MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString()); }
            finally { /* Handle the error*/ }

Where ID is an int. After this I want to set the selected value of the combo box based on the value member. However this seems to be allot trickier then I would think it needs to be. In asp this is pretty straightforward

        ddContact.SelectedValue = o.fk_ContactID.ToString();

I've checked out some other questions (Q1,Q2) which seem to be referring to setting the value by the display member. Whats the most elegant way to go about this ? Thankyou in advance.

Why do you use Controls.Find? the direct syntax (if on the same class) works — Steve, Aug 01 '13 at 19:57
Just don't use `ToString()`. Unlike ASP.NET, which operates strings, WinForms uses type-sensitive comparison. — Alex Skalozub, Aug 01 '13 at 19:58
@Steve, to be fair he said he was ignorant on the topic - and so your comment is rather moot :) — Moo-Juice, Aug 01 '13 at 20:02
@AlexSkalozub It appears that problem was ToString() Call. If you make that an answer I'll mark it as such. Thank you everyone — bumble_bee_tuna, Aug 01 '13 at 20:06

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '13 at 20:01

You say WinForms, so, unless the combo is in another class, this should work

ddContact.DisplayMember = "DisplayText";
ddContact.ValueMember = "ID";
ddContact.DataSource = dt;
ddContact.Value = Convert.ToInt32(dt.Rows[0]["ID"]);

Also I assume that you have found at least one record from your query

Most Elegant Way to Set ComboBox by Value

1 Answers1