Question

Sooo, i keep getting the error:

‘object’ does not contain a definition for ‘text’ and no extension
method ‘text’ accepting a first argument of type ‘object’ could be
found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

for the below code- can anyone tell me why?

    private void cboDataSets_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int cats = Int16.Parse(cboDataSets.SelectedItem.text);
        lblGenerateSelection.Text = ("you have selected " + (20 - cats) + "cats you'd like to adopt");
    }

Answer 1

cboDataSets.SelectedItem will return an object. If it really contains an object that has a .Text property, you have to cast it

int name = 
    Int16.Parse(((SomeObectWithATextProperty)cboDataSets.SelectedItem).Text);

If SelectedItem is really a string, you can do this instead:

int name = 
    Int16.Parse(((string)cboDataSets.SelectedItem));

If SelectedItem is an object that has overridden ToString() to display meaningful data, you can do this

int name = 
    Int16.Parse(cboDataSets.SelectedItem.ToString());