Rudi Grobler

Binding to enum’s

Maximilian asked the following question on Stack Overflow: Databinding an enum property to a ComboBox in WPF?

Let’s create a very simple example

public enum EmployeeType    
{
    Manager,
    Worker
}

Each employee can either be a Manager or a Worker… Here is my Employee “model”

public class Employee : BindableObject
{
    private string name;
    public string Name 
    {
        get { return name; }
        set 
        { 
            name = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("Name");
        }
    }

    private string surname;       
    public string Surname 
    {
        get { return surname; }
        set
        {
            surname = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("Surname");
        }
    }

    private EmployeeType type = EmployeeType.Worker;
    public EmployeeType Type 
    {
        get { return type; }
        set 
        { 
            type = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("Type");
        } 
    }
};

I then create a ObservableCollection<> of dummy data and set my DataContext

DataContext = new ObservableCollection<Employee>() {
    new Employee() { Name = "Butch", Surname = "James", Type = EmployeeType.Worker },
    new Employee() { Name = "John", Surname = "Smith", Type = EmployeeType.Manager },
    new Employee() { Name = "Brian", Surname = "Mujati", Type = EmployeeType.Worker },
    new Employee() { Name = "Tendai", Surname = "Mtawarira", Type = EmployeeType.Worker },
    new Employee() { Name = "BJ", Surname = "Botha", Type = EmployeeType.Worker },  
    new Employee() { Name = "Juan", Surname = "Smit", Type = EmployeeType.Worker }};

Now we are ready to try and create some basic UI for this application!

To bind to the enum, we have 2 choices… we can set the ComboBox’s ItemsSource in the code behind

typeComboBox.ItemsSource = Enum.GetValues(typeof(EmployeeType));

Or we can try and do it the WPF way using only XAML?

<ObjectDataProvider MethodName="GetValues" ObjectType="{x:Type sys:Enum}" x:Key="sysEnum">
    <ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
        <x:Type TypeName="local:EmployeeType" />
    </ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
</ObjectDataProvider>

Now we have a StaticResource we can bind to… Here is the ComboBox binding

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

I love WPF… Next, lets bind to our dummy data! I created a simple master/detail form

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding}" IsSynchronizedWithCurrentItem="True">
    <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <StackPanel Margin="0,0,0,10">
                <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" Margin="0,0,5,0" />
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Surname}" />
                </StackPanel>
                <TextBlock Text="{Binding Type}" />
            </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
    </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

Here is my master… it is just a ListBox with all the Employees listed!

<StackPanel Grid.Column="1">
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
        <Label Content="Name: " />
        <TextBox Text="{Binding Name}" />
    </StackPanel>
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
        <Label Content="Surname: " />
        <TextBox Text="{Binding Surname}" />
    </StackPanel>
    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
        <Label Content="Type: " />
        <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource sysEnum}}" SelectedValue="{Binding Type}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</StackPanel>

And finally our details pane where you can change the employee’s name, surname and type!

That is it, if you found this useful, please