How to get the selected item of a combo box to a string variable in c#

Question

Can anyone tell me how to get the selected item of a ComboBox to a string variable?

string selected = cmbbox.SelectedItem.ToString();
MessageBox.Show(selected);

This gives me System.Data.DataRowView in my MessageBox

score 96 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 03 '13 at 13:24

96

Try this:

string selected = this.ComboBox.GetItemText(this.ComboBox.SelectedItem);
MessageBox.Show(selected);

answered Mar 03 '13 at 13:24

Leo Chapiro

5

Is there a reason to prefer this over `this.ComboBox.Text`? – Mike E Jan 08 '15 at 18:35
6

@Mike E: Yes, there is a reason. ComboBox.Text gets or sets the text associated with this control (has nothing in common with selected item): http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.windows.forms.combobox.text%28v=vs.110%29.aspx – Leo Chapiro Jan 08 '15 at 19:08
1

@LeoChapiro Regarding the `ComboBox.Text` property, according to Microsoft documentation it says: "The string of the currently selected item." – Simple May 06 '21 at 19:36
2

@Simple Microsoft documentation is unfortunately Microsoft documentation, i.e. frequently wrong and misleading. You put this in a SelectionChanged callback and SelectedIndex and SelectedItem will reflect the change. Text will not. – Paul Childs Jul 14 '21 at 03:25

Omer · Answer 2 · 2016-09-29T10:28:00.283

13

You can use as below:

string selected = cmbbox.Text;
MessageBox.Show(selected);

edited Sep 29 '16 at 10:28

answered Jan 08 '14 at 10:36

Omer

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

9

Test this

  var selected = this.ComboBox.GetItemText(this.ComboBox.SelectedItem);
  MessageBox.Show(selected);

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

answered Mar 03 '13 at 13:25

score -3 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 10 '16 at 21:33

-3

SelectedText = this.combobox.SelectionBoxItem.ToString();

edited Mar 10 '16 at 21:33

Undo

answered Mar 10 '16 at 09:04

vinod Jacob

4 Answers4