WPF – Enum Binding in a ComboBox – The Classic Way

Hello Devz,

I had to write this post about how to do an Enum binding to a ComboBox, because everytime I need it, I’m surprised there is no “out-of-the-box” solution provided in WPF or Xamarin.Forms.

<Window x:Class="EnumBinding.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:EnumBinding"
        xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">

    <Window.Resources>
        <ObjectDataProvider x:Key="dataFromEnum" MethodName="GetValues"
                            ObjectType="{x:Type sys:Enum}">
            <ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
                <x:Type TypeName="local:StatusEnum"/>
            </ObjectDataProvider.MethodParameters>
        </ObjectDataProvider>
    </Window.Resources>

    <Grid>
        <ComboBox HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" 
                  MinWidth="150" Margin="50"
                  ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource dataFromEnum}}"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Please notice this line:

xmlns:sys=”clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib”

And the ObjectDataProvider in the Window.Resources.

With a simple Enum called StatusEnum:

public enum StatusEnum
{
    None = 0,
    Waiting = 1,
    Running = 2,
    Success = 3,
    Warning = 4,
    Error = 5
}

So this was the classic way to bind an enum to a combobox. But there is a better way to do that! Yes, please have a look at my post: Enum binding in a combobox – the other way.

Happy coding!  🙂

Related posts:

WPF – Enum Binding With Description in a ComboBox WPF – Enum Binding in a ComboBox – The Other Way C# – Enum Color Converter with IValueConverter WPF – ContentControl and TemplateSelector