casting a combobox selection to char

Sutton Mehaffey

I have a Combobox named "CB_x" defined in WPF and I have selections "0,5,10,15,20". What method can I use to achieve the following (which doesn't work)?

char x;

x = (char)CB_x.SelectionBoxItem; // item selected is a string "20", I need a char 20.

It compiles, but gives a casting error. Is there to atoi() method somewhere?

7 Replies

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Vulpes15y ago
On second thoughts, if you can figure out the index of the SelectionBoxItem, you should be able to change it from the Items collection.

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure of the code but I'd try:

int x = (int)GlobalVars.User_Parameters.alarm_holdoff;
CBAlarmHoldoff.Items[CBAlarmHoldoff.SelectedIndex] = x.ToString();
Vulpes15y ago
I'm sure that this code works, because you can confirm it with a MessageBox.Show:

char x = (char)20;
int i = (int)x;
MessageBox.Show(i.ToString()); // 20

However, I'd overlooked that the ComboBox.SelectionBoxItem property was read-only. All I can suggest there is that you change that particular item in the original datasource and then rebind the combobox to that datasource.
Sutton Mehaffey15y ago
It also is giving the message that SelectionBoxItem is read only.
Sutton Mehaffey15y ago
It doesn't like the ToString.

int x;
x = (int)GlobalVars.User_Parameters.alarm_holdoff; // alarm_holdoff is a char
CBAlarmHoldoff.SelectionBoxItem = x.ToString;

I was trying to do it this way too.

CBAlarmHoldoff.SelectionBoxItem = (int)GlobalVars.User_Parameters.alarm_holdoff.ToString();
Vulpes15y ago
That would be:

char x = (char)20;
int i = (int)x;

CB_x.SelectionBoxItem = i.ToString();
Sutton Mehaffey15y ago
That worked. Now how do I go the other way.

When I read a char 20 from a file, how can I read that into the ComboBox?

x = 20;

CB_x.SelectionBoxItem = x.ToString(); // doesn't work
Vulpes15y ago
Try:

char x = (char)int.Parse(CB_x.SelectionBoxItem.ToString());

This should give you the char with an ASCII value of 20 which, of course, is the non-printing character DC4.