5

I have a Silverlight (WP7) project and would like to bind an enum to a listbox. This is an enum with custom values, sitting in a class library. How do I do this?

DenaliHardtail
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    possible duplicate of [Databinding an enum property to a ComboBox in WPF](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58743/databinding-an-enum-property-to-a-combobox-in-wpf) – Andrey Oct 14 '10 at 17:46

3 Answers3

11

In Silverlight(WP7), Enum.GetNames() method is not available. You can use the following 

public class Enum<T>
{
    public static IEnumerable<string> GetNames()
    {
        var type = typeof(T);
        if (!type.IsEnum)
            throw new ArgumentException("Type '" + type.Name + "' is not an enum");

        return (
          from field in type.GetFields(System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static)
          where field.IsLiteral
          select field.Name).ToList<string>();
    }
}

The static method will returns enumerable string collection. You can bind that to a listbox's itemssource. Like

this.listBox1.ItemSource = Enum<Colors>.GetNames();
Prince Ashitaka
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  • Then, the next question is, how do you assign, with binding, the selected enum value back to a property in the viewmodel? I've been looking around for answers, but couldn't find any resource, any direction pointing is appreciated. thanks. – K2so Nov 22 '10 at 04:54
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    @K2so You can have a property in the view model bound to the `SelectedItem` property of the `ListBox`. check the following sample that could help you. https://sites.google.com/site/html5tutorials/BindingEnum.zip – Prince Ashitaka Nov 22 '10 at 05:27
  • Mind if I borrow this code and attribute to you in my PhoneyTools project so people can use it? http://phoney.codeplex.com? – Shawn Wildermuth Mar 24 '11 at 07:15
  • @ Shawn Wildermuth I'm honoured :) I'm a big fan of your blogs :) – Prince Ashitaka Mar 24 '11 at 16:35
  • What about [Description] attribute? Often it is helpful to use this when Enums need a better string representation. You are not handling that case here. – Robert Kozak Mar 29 '11 at 15:32
1

Use a converter to do this. Refer to http://geekswithblogs.net/cskardon/archive/2008/10/16/databinding-an-enum-in-wpf.aspx.

Ray Zhang
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-1

Convert the enum to a list (or similar) - as per How do I convert an enum to a list in C#?

then bind to the converted list.

Community
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Matt Lacey
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