Make ListBox items have a different value than item text

Question

I want a ListBox full of items. Although, each item should have a different value. So when the user selects an item and presses a button, a method will be called which will use the value the select item has.

I don't want to reveal the item values to the user.

EDIT: This is not for ASP.NET, it's for a Windows Forms application. I just thought the HTML example would be easy to read.

I have the inspiration from HTML:

<form> <input type="radio" name="sex" value="Value1" /> Male <br /> <input type="radio" name="sex" value="Value2" /> Female </form> 

This also allows me to use different values than what the user sees.

Answer 1

You can choose what do display using the DisplayMember of the ListBox.

List<SomeData> data = new List<SomeData>(); data.Add(new SomeData() { Value = 1, Text= "Some Text"}); data.Add(new SomeData() { Value = 2, Text = "Some Other Text"}); listBox1.DisplayMember = "Text"; listBox1.DataSource = data; 

When the user selects an item, you can read the value (or any other property) from the selected object:

int value = (listBox1.SelectedItem as SomeData).Value; 

Update: note that DisplayMember works only with properties, not with fields, so you need to alter your class a bit:

public class SomeData {     public string Value { get; set; };     public string Text { get; set; }; }