asked on

Referring selected items' property in C# winform.

Hi guys,

I have PeopleList which is IEnumerable type.
When a Form loads, I use the following code to add each person to the listbox, myListBox.

foreach(var person in PeopleList)
{
myListBox.Items.Add(person.Name);
}

Now all the people's names are populated in the listbox when a form is opened.
However, I used "person.Name" for user-friendly item names.
What I really need is "person.id", not "person.Name".

So when I click the button, I want to refer all the selected people's ids.
Can you please tell me how to get the list of selected people's ids?

Mike Tomlinson

What I really need is "person.id", not "person.Name".

Don't add "person.Name", simply add the "person" instance directly into the ListBox. Now set the DisplayMember() Property of the ListBox to "Name", and the ValueMember() Property to "id". Consequently, the "Name" property of the person will be displayed, and their "id" will be returned in the SelectedValue() property when something is selected. Additionally, you can cast the SelectedItem() property to whatever type "person" is and access all of its members...

IzzyTwinkly

ASKER

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your help.

private void Form_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (var person in PeopleList)
{
myListBox.Items.Add(person);
myListBox.DisplayMember = "Name";
myListBox.ValueMember = "Id";
}
}
it still shows each person's name in myListBox when the form is loaded, which is good.
Now when I click the button, all the selected people's "Id"s should be displayed. and this is what I did.
private void btn1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string result = "";
foreach (var item in myListBox.SelectedItems)
{
result += item as string;
}
MessageBox.Show(result);
}

And Nothing is displayed in the message box.
Can you please let me know what I did wrong to fix this issue?

Mike Tomlinson

You're casting the "Person"? type stored in the ListBox to a string, which it's not. Simply access the "ID" property directly thru your "item" variable:

        private void btn1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
                string result = "";
                foreach (var item in myListBox.SelectedItems)
                {                    
                    result += item.Id + Environment.NewLine;
                }
                MessageBox.Show(result);                
        }

Open in new window

IzzyTwinkly

ASKER

Hi Mike,

I wish I could do that. When I enter item. only "Equals", "GetHashCode", GetType", and "ToString" are appeared in intellisense.
I don't know if this will help, but I have "Person" class that has "Name" and "ID"
Also the type of PeopleList is IEnumerable<Person>

Thanks,
Izzy

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Mike Tomlinson

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

IzzyTwinkly

ASKER

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your perfect solution as always.
I really appreciate your help!!!

Izzy