Providing unbound List based controls with Text and Value properties in VB.NET

 Introduction

The purpose of this article is to discuss the construction of a couple of simple custom controls that extend both the Combobox and the Listbox controls to allow them to be associated with both a text and a value property for each item in the control's list.  Both controls will normally allow the developer to assign a value property and a text property to each item in the list but only if the control is bound to a data source. If the control is not bound, the option to immediately assign a value to an item in the list is not available.

If one requires that both text and a value be assigned to each item in the list, it is easy enough define a class containing a text and value property of some type and to then create a collection of objects of that type and bind that collection to the control.  In this approach, the developer may need also to need to write handlers to get the value associated with a selected item, to remove items form the list, and to add items to the list (along with a value). If there are a large number controls, writing these additional functions to handle each specific control can be somewhat tedious.

There are a number of reasons why it could be beneficial to supply both a text and value property to an unbound list based control item. In general, if it is not productive, expedient, or even possible to bind a list based control to a data source and the value property is meaningless to the user but essential to the application, having the means to supply the value property along with the user friendly text can be pretty handy.

This demo includes a project with two extended, list based controls capable of holding both a text and a value property without binding, and it contains a demonstration project in which the two controls are used.



Figure 1:  Demo Project with Extended Combobox and Listbox in Use. 

The demo application shown if figure 1 uses both the extended Combobox and Listbox controls; the extended Listbox contains the alphabet in phonetic format; the text property contains the phonetic alphabet whilst the value property contains a not to user friendly pipe delimited string of dots and dashes used to define the Morse code equivalent for the letter. I picked on the Morse code to supply the value because whilst most people would easily recognize that Alpha stands for 'A' and Bravo stands for 'B'; they would not so easily recognize that |...|---|...| means "SOS" or that |...|-.-.|.|-|-| represents "Scott" in Morse code.

Just for fun, when the user selects one of the options from the extended Listbox, the application displays both the phonetic (text) property and Morse code (value) property in the two textboxes below the extended Combobox. Also, when an item is selected, the application will decipher the Morse code (value) and play it aloud so the user can hear the Morse code whilst seeing the phonetic alphabet character and string representation of the Morse code. The two buttons located adjacent to each text box are used to retrieve the value property from the text property or the text property from the value property. The only purpose of either is to demonstrate that it can be done.

The extended Combobox control is used in a manner similar to the extended Listbox but it does not play any Morse code through the speakers. It displays the names of different truck manufacturers along with a number used to identify that manufacturer. As with the Listbox, the Combobox contains two text boxes beneath it which are used to display the text and value properties for the selected item. It also uses two button controls to either pull up the value from the text or the text from the value. 

Getting Started

The solution contains two projects; one is a class library project containing two custom controls and the other is a demonstration Windows application that contains a single form. The two controls contained in the class library project are an extended version of each the ComboBox and the ListBox control. The form in the demonstration application contains both types of custom control along with some additional controls used to exercise the custom controls.



Figure 2:  Solution Explorer. 

Project:  Extended List Controls

The extended list controls project is a class library project that contains two custom controls: ExComboBox.cs and ExListBox.cs.  The controls are extended versions of the standard toolbox controls; the purpose of the extension of each control was to add in a collection (a SortedList) and to provide the additional code necessary to give access to the collection and to display the members of the collections is the control's standard list. Since both controls are essentially the same except for the type of control extended, I will only describe one of the two control's code; the code for the ExComboBox.cs control is as follows:

The class contains the following references, namespace and class declaration; note the addition of System.Collections and System.Windows.Forms:

Imports System.Windows.Forms

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Imports System.Collections 

 

Public Class ExComboBox

    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox 

The class declaration shows that the class is based upon and extends the standard Combobox control. By inheriting the combobox control, we pick up all of the functionality associated with that control. Following the class declaration, a sorted list is declared, and in the constructor, a new instance of the sorted list is created:

''' <summary>

''' sorted list used to retain

''' text and value pairs for the unbound

''' extended combobox control

''' </summary>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private mListCollection As SortedList 

 

''' <summary>

''' Constructor

''' </summary>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Sub New()

 

    'Instance the collection in

    'the constructor

    mListCollection = New SortedList()

 

End Sub

The sorted list, "mListCollection" will be used to contain the text and value pairs assigned to each item in the control's list.  Following the constructor, the first method is defined: 

''' <summary>

''' Provides public method to both add items to private

''' collection of text-value pairs and to reload the

''' combobox list with the items from the key side of the

''' sortedlist items

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sText"></param>

''' <param name="sValue"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Sub AddListItem(ByVal sText As String, ByVal sValue As String)

 

    Try

        mListCollection.Add(sText, sValue)

    Catch

        Return

    End Try

 

    Me.Items.Clear()

 

    Dim de As DictionaryEntry

    For Each de In mListCollection

        Me.Items.Add(de.Key.ToString())

    Next

 

End Sub

The AddListItem method defined above is used to add key-value pairs to the sorted list. The attempt to add an item is wrapped in a try catch block; this will prevent attempts to load duplicate keys from interfering with the application; if the user does attempt to enter duplicate keys, the attempt will fail the application will return from the method call without changing the sorted list.One could rig this method to return Boolean value indicating the success of the operation. After the item has been added to the sorted list, the combobox is cleared of all items and each item from the newly updated sorted list is then added back into the list.

The next method defined is used to remove an item from the sorted list; this method works very much the same as the code used to add an item:

''' <summary>

''' Remove the key item from the private sortedlist if

''' the item matches the text passed into this

''' public subroutine

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sText"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Sub RemoveListItem(ByVal sText As String)

 

    Try

        mListCollection.Remove(sText)

    Catch

        Return

    End Try

 

    Me.Items.Clear()

 

    Dim de As DictionaryEntry

    For Each de In mListCollection

        Me.Items.Add(de.Key.ToString())

    Next

End Sub

The next bit of code in the control is used to get the value associated with an item contained in the list. Selection of the returned item is based upon the current selected index value from the control's standard list:

''' <summary>

''' Get the value associated with a control list item

''' based upon the selected index value

''' </summary>

''' <returns></returns>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Function GetValue() As String

 

    Try
        Return Convert.ToString(mListCollection.GetByIndex _(Me.SelectedIndex))

    Catch

        Return String.Empty

    End Try

 

End Function

If the item is not found in the list, the method returns an empty string.

The next method in the class is used to return the value associated with a list item's text. The value is obtained by examining the contents of the list until the value text is found and then, per the found text, the value is obtained and returned as a string. If the value is not located, an empty string is returned:

''' <summary>

''' A public method to return the value associated with the

''' text (key) from the private sorted list based upon a

''' match of the string passed to this method against the

''' key values in the sorted list; if nothing matches, an

''' emptry string will be returned.

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sText"></param>

''' <returns></returns>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Function GetValueByText(ByVal sText As String) As String

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    Try

        Dim de As DictionaryEntry

 

        For Each de In mListCollection

            If de.Key.ToString = sText Then

                tmp = de.Value.ToString()

            End If

        Next

        Return tmp

    Catch

        Return tmp

    End Try

 

End Function

The last method in the control's code is used to obtain the text for a list item based upon its value:

''' <summary>

''' Return the text of an item based upon its value; if the

''' items is not found, return an empty string.

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sValue"></param>

''' <returns></returns>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Function GetTextByValue(ByVal sValue As String) As String

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    Try

        Dim de As DictionaryEntry

 

        For Each de In mListCollection

            If de.Value.ToString = sValue Then

                tmp = de.Key.ToString()

            End If

        Next

        Return tmp

    Catch

        Return tmp

    End Try

 

End Function

Note that since only the text side is guaranteed to be unique, if the collection contained multiple values of the same content, this method will return the first item found that meets the criteria. The important method is therefore one that retrieves the value associated with the unique key (text) property. The value of this last function will be limited unless the user of the control limits the list to items unque as both text and value.

That wraps up the code in the custom control. As mention previously, the extended ListBox control works in exactly the same manner with the same methods and properties available. 

Project:  Test Collection Controls (Demonstration Project)

This project contains a single form and one of each of the two custom controls (along with some other controls used in conjunction with those custom controls.

The form contains two group boxes; in the top box is an extended ListBox control along with two text boxes and two buttons.  When a user makes a selection from the custom control, the event handler for that control will be used to place the related text and value properties into each of the two text boxes. The two buttons are used along with text boxes to pull up the value from the text or the text from the value. In this case, the custom control is populated with all of the letters defined in the phonetic alphabet on the text side and the Morse code representation of the letter in the value side. Morse code values are displayed in the form of a pipe delimited string made up of dots and dashes. Further, when the item is selected, the value is sent to a method that deciphers the Morse code and plays it aloud through the speakers.

The second group box contains an extended ComboBox control; this control is populated with a list comprised of the names of truck manufacturers along with an arbitrary six digit identifier. This group box also contains two text boxes and two buttons that are also used to display the value and text properties associated with items contained in the control's sorted list. The buttons here are used to display the value associated with the selected text and the text associated with selected value.

The form class code starts out with the following references, namespace, and class declaration:

Imports System

Imports System.Collections.Generic

Imports System.ComponentModel

Imports System.Data

Imports System.Drawing

Imports System.Text

Imports System.Windows.Forms

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices 

 

''' <summary>

''' Demo application used to test the extended listbox

''' and combobox controls

''' </summary>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Public Class Form1

Note the addition of a reference to System.Runtime.InteropServices; this is used to support the DLL Import of the Beep method which is used to play the Morse code sounds.

After the class declaration, the following code is inserted to import the beep method from the kernel32 DLL:

''' <summary>

''' Import a kernel32.dll function to play beeps;

''' used with the morse code player function

''' </summary>

''' <param name="frequency"></param>

''' <param name="duration"></param>

''' <returns></returns>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Declare Function Beep Lib "kernel32.DLL" _

(ByVal frequency As Integer, ByVal duration As Integer) As Boolean

The next bit of code is used to manage the form load event; the constructor is in the default configuration whilst in the form load event, the custom controls are manually populated with text and values using each control's public "AddListItem" method; this method accepts two arguments, the key and the value, which are loaded into the control's internal sorted list. When the sorted list is updated, the contents of the controls visible list is updated to display text added through the method:

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load 

 

    ' manually populate the list with the key and

    ' value pairs - This loads the extended

    ' combobox with the phonetic alphabet and

    ' the Morse code equivalent represented

    ' by a pipe delimited string containing

    ' dots and dashes

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Alpha", "|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Bravo", "|-|.|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Charlie", "|-|.|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Delta", "|-|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Echo", "|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Foxtrot", "|.|.|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Golf", "|-|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Hotel", "|.|.|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("India", "|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Juliette", "|.|-|-|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Kilo", "|-|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Lima", "|.|-|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Mike", "|-|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("November", "|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Oscar", "|-|-|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Papa", "|.|-|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Quebec", "|-|-|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Romeo", "|.|-|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Sierra", "|.|.|.|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Tango", "|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Uniform", "|.|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Victor", "|.|.|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Whiskey", "|.|-|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Xray", "|-|.|.|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Yankee", "|-|.|-|-|")

    ExListBox1.AddListItem("Zulu", "|-|-|.|.|") 

 

    ' Populate the extended listbox control with

    ' the names of some trucks along with some otherwise

    ' meaningless values

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Mack", "012393")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Peterbuilt", "234234")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("International Harvester", "345432")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("White Freightliner", "213453")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Kenworth", "856745")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("GMC General", "234865")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Ford", "328975")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Ivenco", "675474")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Magirus", "666873")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Isuzu", "343445")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Volvo", "648857")

    ExComboBox1.AddListItem("Dodge", "111349")

 

End Sub
 

The next item up in the form code is the selected index changed event handler for the custom control; this handler sets the text showing the selected text and the associatd value for the selected item. It further sends the value to a separate method that is used to play the Morse code version of the selected item.

''' <summary>

''' Using the custom listbox control to retrieve

''' text-value pairs

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub ExListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As _

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _ExListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged

 

    txtSelectText.Text = ExListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString()

    txtSelectValue.Text = ExListBox1.GetValue()

    Refresh()

    PlayMorseCode(txtSelectValue.ToString())

 

End Sub

The two button handlers for the custom Listbox control are next, the first is used to get the value associated with the text contained in the text box whilst the second does the opposite and gets the text associated with the  value. Both are displayed in a message box once they have been retrieved from the custom control's internal sorted list through the appropriate method call.

''' <summary>

''' Get the value associated with the key

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub btnGetValue_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetValue.Click

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    If txtSelectText.Text <> String.Empty Then

        tmp = ExListBox1.GetValueByText(txtSelectText.Text.ToString())

    End If

 

    MessageBox.Show("'" + tmp + "' is the matching value.", _"Get Value from Text")

 

End Sub 

 

''' <summary>

''' Get the key associated with the value

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub btnGetKey_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetKey.Click

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    If txtSelectValue.Text <> String.Empty Then

        tmp = ExListBox1.GetTextByValue(txtSelectValue.Text.ToString())

    End If

 

    MessageBox.Show("'" + tmp + "' is the matching value.", _"Get Text from Value")

 

End Sub

The next item up is the selected index changed event handler for the custom ComboBox control.

''' <summary>

''' Using the custom combobox control to retrieve

''' text-value pairs

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub ExComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As _

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _ExComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged

 

    ' put the combobox text and value into a couple

    ' of textboxes for display

    txtSelectText2.Text = ExComboBox1.SelectedItem.ToString()

    txtSelectValue2.Text = ExComboBox1.GetValue()

End Sub

After that, the next two items handle the button click events for the two buttons used with the custom ComboBox control and its associated text boxes.

''' <summary>

''' Retrieve the value from the key

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub btnGetValue2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e _

As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetValue2.Click

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    If txtSelectText2.Text <> String.Empty Then

        tmp = ExComboBox1.GetValueByText(txtSelectText2.Text.ToString())

    End If

 

    MessageBox.Show("'" + tmp + "' is the matching value.", _"Get Value from Text")

 

End Sub 

 

''' <summary>

''' Retrieve the key from the value

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub btnGetKey2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As _

System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetKey2.Click

 

    Dim tmp As String = String.Empty

 

    If txtSelectValue2.Text <> String.Empty Then

        tmp = ExComboBox1.GetTextByValue(txtSelectValue2.Text.ToString())

    End If

 

    MessageBox.Show("'" + tmp + "' is the matching value.", _"Get Text from Value")

 

End Sub

After the event handlers, the next bit of code is a method used to play the Morse code equivalent of letter selected from the alphabet. The method parses the contents of the Morse code string passed to it and plays the appropriate sequence of dits an and da's aloud.

''' <summary>

''' Use the passed in value string containing the dots and

''' dashes defining the Morse code representation of the

''' character and play the Morse code version of the letter

''' aloud through the speakers.

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sMorseCode"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub PlayMorseCode(ByVal sMorseCode As String)

 

    Dim ditAndDa As String() = sMorseCode.Split("|")

    Dim s As String

 

    For Each s In ditAndDa

        Select Case (s)

            Case "."

                Beep(900, 100)

                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50)

            Case "-"

                Beep(900, 300)

                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50)

            Case Else

                'do nothing

        End Select

    Next

 

    ' maintain a little separation between letters

    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50)

 

End Sub

The last in the form class is merely used to handle the exit button click event.

''' <summary>

''' Exit the application

''' </summary>

''' <param name="sender"></param>

''' <param name="e"></param>

''' <remarks></remarks>

Private Sub btnExit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As _

System.EventArgs) Handles btnExit.Click

 

    Application.Exit()

 

End Sub

Summary.

This article was intended to demonstrate one approach to building a custom control that would permit the user to associate a value property with the items contained in the list of an unbound list based control such as ComboBox or ListBox. The method demonstrated consisted of constructing a simple custom control that maintains a sorted list associated with the control's standard list. The custom control also provides a nominal number of methods used to obtain the value or text associated with an item selected from the list. Since the standard list based controls do not support a value property for the control unless the control is bound, the approach demonstrated offers a simple work around that can be used if it is considered desirable to apply a value to each list item contained in an unbound control.

The control presented is quite simple and could be improved upon greatly; for example if one were to modify the control to permit the user of the control to edit the collection through a collection editor at design time that may be more appealing to some than manually keying in the collection.