Databinding an enum property to a ComboBox in WPF

Question

As an example take the following code:

public enum ExampleEnum { FooBar, BarFoo }

public class ExampleClass : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private ExampleEnum example;

    public ExampleEnum ExampleProperty 
    { get { return example; } { /* set and notify */; } }
}

I want a to databind the property ExampleProperty to a ComboBox, so that it shows the options "FooBar" and "BarFoo" and works in mode TwoWay. Optimally I want my ComboBox definition to look something like this:

<ComboBox ItemsSource="What goes here?" SelectedItem="{Binding Path=ExampleProperty}" />

Currently I have handlers for the ComboBox.SelectionChanged and ExampleClass.PropertyChanged events installed in my Window where I do the binding manually.

Is there a better or some kind of canonical way? Would you usually use Converters and how would you populate the ComboBox with the right values? I don't even want to get started with i18n right now.

Edit

So one question was answered: How do I populate the ComboBox with the right values.

Retrieve Enum values as a list of strings via an ObjectDataProvider from the static Enum.GetValues method:

<Window.Resources>
    <ObjectDataProvider MethodName="GetValues"
        ObjectType="{x:Type sys:Enum}"
        x:Key="ExampleEnumValues">
        <ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
            <x:Type TypeName="ExampleEnum" />
        </ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
    </ObjectDataProvider>
</Window.Resources>

This I can use as an ItemsSource for my ComboBox:

<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ExampleEnumValues}}"/>

Answer 1

This is a DevExpress specific answer based on the top-voted answer by Gregor S. (currently it has 128 votes).

This means we can keep the styling consistent across the entire application:

Unfortunately, the original answer doesn't work with a ComboBoxEdit from DevExpress without some modifications.

First, the XAML for the ComboBoxEdit:

<dxe:ComboBoxEdit ItemsSource="{Binding Source={xamlExtensions:XamlExtensionEnumDropdown {x:myEnum:EnumFilter}}}"
    SelectedItem="{Binding BrokerOrderBookingFilterSelected, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
    DisplayMember="Description"
    MinWidth="144" Margin="5" 
    HorizontalAlignment="Left"
    IsTextEditable="False"
    ValidateOnTextInput="False"
    AutoComplete="False"
    IncrementalFiltering="True"
    FilterCondition="Like"
    ImmediatePopup="True"/>

Needsless to say, you will need to point xamlExtensions at the namespace that contains the XAML extension class (which is defined below):

xmlns:xamlExtensions="clr-namespace:XamlExtensions"

And we have to point myEnum at the namespace that contains the enum:

xmlns:myEnum="clr-namespace:MyNamespace"

Then, the enum:

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public enum EnumFilter
    {
        [Description("Free as a bird")]
        Free = 0,

        [Description("I'm Somewhat Busy")]
        SomewhatBusy = 1,

        [Description("I'm Really Busy")]
        ReallyBusy = 2
    }
}

The problem in with the XAML is that we can't use SelectedItemValue, as this throws an error as the setter is unaccessable (bit of an oversight on your part, DevExpress). So we have to modify our ViewModel to obtain the value directly from the object:

private EnumFilter _filterSelected = EnumFilter.All;
public object FilterSelected
{
    get
    {
        return (EnumFilter)_filterSelected;
    }
    set
    {
        var x = (XamlExtensionEnumDropdown.EnumerationMember)value;
        if (x != null)
        {
            _filterSelected = (EnumFilter)x.Value;
        }
        OnPropertyChanged("FilterSelected");
    }
}

For completeness, here is the XAML extension from the original answer (slightly renamed):

namespace XamlExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    ///     Intent: XAML markup extension to add support for enums into any dropdown box, see http://bit.ly/1g70oJy. We can name the items in the
    ///     dropdown box by using the [Description] attribute on the enum values.
    /// </summary>
    public class XamlExtensionEnumDropdown : MarkupExtension
    {
        private Type _enumType;


        public XamlExtensionEnumDropdown(Type enumType)
        {
            if (enumType == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("enumType");
            }

            EnumType = enumType;
        }

        public Type EnumType
        {
            get { return _enumType; }
            private set
            {
                if (_enumType == value)
                {
                    return;
                }

                var enumType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(value) ?? value;

                if (enumType.IsEnum == false)
                {
                    throw new ArgumentException("Type must be an Enum.");
                }

                _enumType = value;
            }
        }

        public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            var enumValues = Enum.GetValues(EnumType);

            return (
                from object enumValue in enumValues
                select new EnumerationMember
                       {
                           Value = enumValue,
                           Description = GetDescription(enumValue)
                       }).ToArray();
        }

        private string GetDescription(object enumValue)
        {
            var descriptionAttribute = EnumType
                .GetField(enumValue.ToString())
                .GetCustomAttributes(typeof (DescriptionAttribute), false)
                .FirstOrDefault() as DescriptionAttribute;


            return descriptionAttribute != null
                ? descriptionAttribute.Description
                : enumValue.ToString();
        }

        #region Nested type: EnumerationMember
        public class EnumerationMember
        {
            public string Description { get; set; }
            public object Value { get; set; }
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with DevExpress. Telerik is also a great library.

Answer 2

Use ObjectDataProvider:

<ObjectDataProvider x:Key="enumValues"
   MethodName="GetValues" ObjectType="{x:Type System:Enum}">
      <ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
           <x:Type TypeName="local:ExampleEnum"/>
      </ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
 </ObjectDataProvider>

and then bind to static resource:

ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource enumValues}}"

Find this solution at this blog

Answer 3

Try using

<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ExampleEnumValues}}"
    SelectedValue="{Binding Path=ExampleProperty}" />

Answer 4

I've created an open source CodePlex project that does this. You can download the NuGet package from here.

<enumComboBox:EnumComboBox EnumType="{x:Type demoApplication:Status}" SelectedValue="{Binding Status}" />

Answer 5

If you are using a MVVM, based on @rudigrobler answer you can do the following:

Add the following property to the ViewModel class

public Array ExampleEnumValues => Enum.GetValues(typeof(ExampleEnum));

Then in the XAML do the following:

<ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ExampleEnumValues}" ... />

Answer 6

Here is a generic solution using a helper method. This can also handle an enum of any underlying type (byte, sbyte, uint, long, etc.)

Helper Method:

static IEnumerable<object> GetEnum<T>() {
    var type    = typeof(T);
    var names   = Enum.GetNames(type);
    var values  = Enum.GetValues(type);
    var pairs   =
        Enumerable.Range(0, names.Length)
        .Select(i => new {
                Name    = names.GetValue(i)
            ,   Value   = values.GetValue(i) })
        .OrderBy(pair => pair.Name);
    return pairs;
}//method

View Model:

public IEnumerable<object> EnumSearchTypes {
    get {
        return GetEnum<SearchTypes>();
    }
}//property

ComboBox:

<ComboBox
    SelectedValue       ="{Binding SearchType}"
    ItemsSource         ="{Binding EnumSearchTypes}"
    DisplayMemberPath   ="Name"
    SelectedValuePath   ="Value"
/>