Databinding an enum property to a ComboBox in WPF

Question

As an example take the following code: ``` public enum ExampleEnum { FooBar, BarFoo } public class ExampleClass : INotifyPropertyChanged { private ExampleEnum example; public ExampleEnum ExampleProperty { get { return example; } { /* set and notify */; } } } ``` I want a to databind the property ExampleProperty to a ComboBox, so that it shows the options "FooBar" and "BarFoo" and works in mode TwoWay. Optimally I want my ComboBox definition to look something like this: ``` <ComboBox ItemsSource="What goes here?" SelectedItem="{Binding Path=ExampleProperty}" /> ``` Currently I have handlers for the ComboBox.SelectionChanged and ExampleClass.PropertyChanged events installed in my Window where I do the binding manually. Is there a better or some kind of canonical way? Would you usually use Converters and how would you populate the ComboBox with the right values? I don't even want to get started with i18n right now. Edit So one question was answered: How do I populate the ComboBox with th…

Accepted Answer

You can create a custom markup extension.

Example of usage:

```
enum Status
{
    [Description("Available.")]
    Available,
    [Description("Not here right now.")]
    Away,
    [Description("I don't have time right now.")]
    Busy
}
```

At the top of your XAML:

```
    xmlns:my="clr-namespace:namespace_to_enumeration_extension_class
```

and then...

```
<ComboBox 
    ItemsSource="{Binding Source={my:Enumeration {x:Type my:Status}}}" 
    DisplayMemberPath="Description" 
    SelectedValue="{Binding CurrentStatus}"  
    SelectedValuePath="Value"  /> 
```

And the implementation...

```
public class EnumerationExtension : MarkupExtension
  {
    private Type _enumType;

public EnumerationExtension(Type enumType)
    {
      if (enumType == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("enumType");

EnumType = enumType;
    }

public Type EnumType
    {
      get { return _enumType; }
      private set
      {
        if (_enumType == value)
          return;

var enumType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(value) ?? value;

if (enumType.IsEnum == false)
          throw new ArgumentException("Type must be an Enum.");

_enumType = value;
      }
    }

public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider) // or IXamlServiceProvider for UWP and WinUI
    {
      var enumValues = Enum.GetValues(EnumType);

return (
        from object enumValue in enumValues
        select new EnumerationMember{
          Value = enumValue,
          Description = GetDescription(enumValue)
        }).ToArray();
    }

private string GetDescription(object enumValue)
    {
      var descriptionAttribute = EnumType
        .GetField(enumValue.ToString())
        .GetCustomAttributes(typeof (DescriptionAttribute), false)
        .FirstOrDefault() as DescriptionAttribute;

return descriptionAttribute != null
        ? descriptionAttribute.Description
        : enumValue.ToString();
    }

public class EnumerationMember
    {
      public string Description { get; set; }
      public object Value { get; set; }
    }
  }
```

Databinding an enum property to a ComboBox in WPF

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