C# Mapping Enums To Comboboxes with Style

I was working on my bachelor degree project (a code generator for Atmega16) these days and found myself having a nasty enum/combobox problem.

I usually map a enum directly to the data source of a combobox. Unfortunately for the enum below, it didn't look the way I wanted:

	public enum WdtOscillatorCycles
	{
	_16k = 0x00,
	_32k,
	_64k,
	_128k,
	_256k,
	_512k,
	_1024k,
	_2048k
	}

view raw CSharp_Winforms_MappingEnumsToComboboxes_NormalEnum.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Ugly mapping

I wouldn't want for the user to see the leading underscore. Furthermore, I wanted to find a solution in which I could display instead of _16k something like 16000 Cycles without complicating myself too much.

I did some research and I found a solution here. Stated briefly, you need to derive a class from TypeConverter (see the implementation I found here) and start writing your enums like this:

	[TypeConverter(typeof(EnumToStringUsingDescription))]
	public enum WdtOscillatorCyclesImproved
	{
	[Description("16000 Cycles")]
	_16k = 0x00,
	[Description("32000 Cycles")]
	_32k,
	[Description("64000 Cycles")]
	_64k,
	[Description("128000 Cycles")]
	_128k,
	[Description("256000 Cycles")]
	_256k,
	[Description("512000 Cycles")]
	_512k,
	[Description("1024000 Cycles")]
	_1024k,
	[Description("2048000 Cycles")]
	_2048k
	}

view raw CSharp_Winforms_MappingEnumsToComboboxes_ImprovedEnum.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Good-looking mapping

The main idea is that if you use a TypeConverter, you can break the dependency between the name of the enum and what's displayed in your combobox.

In case you didn't knew, here's how you map an enum to a combobox and set/get the selected item::

	public partial class MappingEnumToComboboxesForm : Form
	{
	public MappingEnumToComboboxesForm()
	{
	InitializeComponent();
	//Setting the enums as the data sources of the comboboxes
	comboBoxNormal.DataSource =
	Enum.GetValues(typeof(WdtOscillatorCycles));
	comboBoxImproved.DataSource =
	Enum.GetValues(typeof(WdtOscillatorCyclesImproved));
	}
	public WdtOscillatorCyclesImproved WdtOscillatorCyclesOption
	{
	get
	{
	//The result must be cast to the enum's type
	return (WdtOscillatorCyclesImproved)(comboBoxImproved.SelectedItem);
	}
	set
	{
	//You don't need a cast here.
	comboBoxImproved.SelectedItem = value;
	}
	}
	}

view raw CSharp_Winforms_MappingEnumsToComboboxes_ActualMapping.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Q: Do you know other (better/simpler) methods for mapping enums to comboboxes? Leave me a comment, if so.

See here the example source files
Download here the entire C# code examples collection

Read more about this topic:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.typeconverter.aspx

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