Question

I am a C++ developer and have recently started learning WPF. I am working on a wpf app where I am using MVVM. I have comboboxes and I need to add items in it. Although I generally use ComboboxPropertyName.Add(“”) to add items in it, I am looking for an efficient method which adds the items without much code length. Here is the code:

XAML:

<ComboBox Height="23" ItemsSource="{Binding BoardBoxList}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedBoardBoxList, Mode=TwoWay}" SelectedIndex="0" Name="comboBox2" />

ViewModel Class:

public ObservableCollection<string> BoardBoxList
    {
        get { return _BoardBoxList; }
        set
        {
            _BoardBoxList = value;
            OnPropertyChanged("BoardBoxList");
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// _SelectedBoardBoxList
    /// </summary>
    private string _SelectedBoardBoxList;
    public string SelectedBoardBoxList
    {
        get { return _SelectedBoardBoxList; }
        set
        {
            _SelectedBoardBoxList = value;
            OnPropertyChanged("SelectedBoardBoxList");
        }
    }

Here Is how I had added items in my combobox in C++:

static const signed char boards[][9] = {
{},                                           // left blank to indicate no selection
{ 'S', '1', '0', '1', '0', '0', '1', '2', 0 },   // redhook
{ 'S', '1', '0', '1', '0', '0', '1', '8', 0 },   // bavaria
{ 'S', '1', '0', '1', '0', '0', '2', '0', 0 },   // flying dog
};

m_boardBox = new ComboBox(String::empty);
for(int i = 1; i < 4; i++)
    m_boardBox->addItem(String((char*)(boards[i])), i); 
m_boardBox->setSelectedId(2); // select Bavaria by default
addAndMakeVisible(m_boardBox);

If you notice above, you will find the loop adding items easily. This is how i wanna add items to my combobox.

If I use _BoardBoxList.Add("...."); I will have to use many .Adds. Is their an efficient way where I can store the items in a list/collection and add them into the combobox in the form of for loop just like above?

Please help 🙂

Answer 1

You can use a constructor of ObservableCollection that can consume an enumerable as a start set.

new ObservableCollection<string>(boards);

Boards would have to be an collection of strings not chars.

Edit:

var boards = new[]{ "S1010012" ,   // redhook
                   "S1010018",   // bavaria
                   "S1010020"    // flying dog
                  }