C# - Fill a combo box with a DataTable

Question

I'm used to work with Java where large amounts of examples are available. For various reasons I had to switch to C# and trying to do the following in SharpDevelop:

// Form has a menu containing a combobox added via SharpDevelop's GUI  // --- Variables languages = new string[2]; languages[0] = "English"; languages[1] = "German"; DataSet myDataSet = new DataSet();  // --- Preparation DataTable lTable = new DataTable("Lang"); DataColumn lName = new DataColumn("Language", typeof(string)); lTable.Columns.Add( lName ); for( int i=0; i<languages.Length; i++ ) {     DataRow lLang = lTable.NewRow();     lLang["Language"] = languages[i];     lTable.Rows.Add(lLang); } myDataSet.Tables.Add(lTable);  // --- Handling the combobox mnuActionLanguage.ComboBox.DataSource = myDataSet.Tables["Lang"].DefaultView; mnuActionLanguage.ComboBox.DisplayMember = "Language"; 

One would assume to see some values in the dropdown, but it's empty. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong ;(

EDIT: mnuActionLanguage.ComboBox.DataBind() is what I also found on the net, but it doesn't work in my case.

SOLUTION

mnuActionLanguage.ComboBox.BindingContext = this.BindingContext; 

at the end solved the problem!

Answer 1

You need to set the binding context of the ToolStripComboBox.ComboBox.

Here is a slightly modified version of the code that I have just recreated using Visual Studio. The menu item combo box is called toolStripComboBox1 in my case. Note the last line of code to set the binding context.

I noticed that if the combo is in the visible are of the toolstrip, the binding works without this but not when it is in a drop-down. Do you get the same problem?

If you can't get this working, drop me a line via my contact page and I will send you the project. You won't be able to load it using SharpDevelop but will with C# Express.

var languages = new string[2]; languages[0] = "English"; languages[1] = "German";  DataSet myDataSet = new DataSet();  // --- Preparation DataTable lTable = new DataTable("Lang"); DataColumn lName = new DataColumn("Language", typeof(string)); lTable.Columns.Add(lName);  for (int i = 0; i < languages.Length; i++) {     DataRow lLang = lTable.NewRow();     lLang["Language"] = languages[i];     lTable.Rows.Add(lLang); } myDataSet.Tables.Add(lTable);  toolStripComboBox1.ComboBox.DataSource = myDataSet.Tables["Lang"].DefaultView; toolStripComboBox1.ComboBox.DisplayMember = "Language";  toolStripComboBox1.ComboBox.BindingContext = this.BindingContext;