Binding ComboBoxes to enums... in Silverlight!

data-binding, enums, silverlight, xaml

Solution

Agh, I spoke too soon! There is a perfectly good solution, at least in Silverlight 3. (It might only be in 3, since this thread indicates that a bug related to this stuff was fixed in Silverlight 3.)

Basically, you need a single converter for the `ItemsSource` property, but it can be entirely generic without using any of the prohibited methods, as long as you pass it the name of a property whose type is `MyEnum`. And databinding to `SelectedItem` is entirely painless; no converter needed! Well, at least it is as long as you don't want custom strings for each enum value via e.g. the `DescriptionAttribute`, hmm... will probably need another converter for that one; hope I can make it generic.

Update: I made a converter and it works! I have to bind to `SelectedIndex` now, sadly, but it's OK. Use these guys:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows.Data;

namespace DomenicDenicola.Wpf
{
    public class EnumToIntConverter : IValueConverter
    {
        public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            // Note: as pointed out by Martin in the comments on this answer, this line
            // depends on the enum values being sequentially ordered from 0 onward,
            // since combobox indices are done that way. A more general solution would
            // probably look up where in the GetValues array our value variable
            // appears, then return that index.
            return (int)value;
        }

        public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            return Enum.Parse(targetType, value.ToString(), true);
        }
    }
    public class EnumToIEnumerableConverter : IValueConverter
    {
        private Dictionary<Type, List<object>> cache = new Dictionary<Type, List<object>>();

        public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            var type = value.GetType();
            if (!this.cache.ContainsKey(type))
            {
                var fields = type.GetFields().Where(field => field.IsLiteral);
                var values = new List<object>();
                foreach (var field in fields)
                {
                    DescriptionAttribute[] a = (DescriptionAttribute[])field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
                    if (a != null && a.Length > 0)
                    {
                        values.Add(a[0].Description);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        values.Add(field.GetValue(value));
                    }
                }
                this.cache[type] = values;
            }

            return this.cache[type];
        }

        public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
    }
}

With this sort of binding XAML:

<ComboBox x:Name="MonsterGroupRole"
          ItemsSource="{Binding MonsterGroupRole,
                                Mode=OneTime,
                                Converter={StaticResource EnumToIEnumerableConverter}}"
          SelectedIndex="{Binding MonsterGroupRole,
                                  Mode=TwoWay,
                                  Converter={StaticResource EnumToIntConverter}}" />

And this sort of resource-declaration XAML:

<Application xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:ddwpf="clr-namespace:DomenicDenicola.Wpf">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ddwpf:EnumToIEnumerableConverter x:Key="EnumToIEnumerableConverter" />
        <ddwpf:EnumToIntConverter x:Key="EnumToIntConverter" />
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Any comments would be appreciated, as I'm somewhat of a XAML/Silverlight/WPF/etc. newbie. For example, will the `EnumToIntConverter.ConvertBack` be slow, so that I should consider using a cache?

Problem

So, the web, and StackOverflow, have plenty of nice answers for how to bind a combobox to an enum property in WPF. But Silverlight is missing all of the features that make this possible :(. For example: - You can't use a generic `EnumDisplayer`-style `IValueConverter` that accepts a type parameter, since Silverlight doesn't support `x:Type`. - You can't use `ObjectDataProvider`, like in this approach, since it doesn't exist in Silverlight. - You can't use a custom markup extension like in the comments on the link from #2, since markup extensions don't exist in Silverlight. - You can't do a version of #1 using generics instead of `Type` properties of the object, since generics aren't supported in XAML (and the hacks to make them work all depend on markup extensions, not supported in Silverlight). Massive fail! As I see it, the only way to make this work is to either - Cheat and bind to a string property in my ViewModel, whose setter/getter does the conversion, loading values into the ComboBox using code-behind in the View. - Make a custom `IValueConverter` for every enum I want to bind to. Are there any alternatives that are more generic, i.e. don't involve writing the same code over and over for every enum I want? I suppose I could do solution #2 using a generic class accepting the enum as a type parameter, and then create new classes for every enum I want that are simply ``` class MyEnumConverter : GenericEnumConverter<MyEnum> {} ``` What are your thoughts, guys?

Original source