strongly-typed collection as a datasource

[brouse]

I am trying to use a strongly-typed collection as a datasource for a listbox (and a datagridview) and having problems getting it to work. I am using VB.NET 2008.

Can anyone point me to some good examples of this so I can try to figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks...

[Hack]

What does "having problems getting it to work" mean?

What code are you running?

What errors are you getting?

[brouse]

Here is an example of the class/collection:

Public Class CBarCode
    Private nBarCodeNumber As Integer = 0
    Private sBarCodeValue As String = ""
    Private sBarCodeType As String = ""
    Private nBarCodePage As Integer = 0
    Private sIndexField As String = ""
End Class

Public Class CBarCodes
    Inherits Dictionary(Of String, CBarCode)
End Class

I tried binding the collection directly, but got an error: "Complex DataBinding accepts as a data source either an IList or an IListSource". So I added a "BindingSource" object and used it.

Here is an example of the code:

lstBarCodes.BeginUpdate()
lstBarCodes.DataSource = CBarCodesBindingSource
CBarCodesBindingSource.DataSource = oBarCodes
'CBarCodesBindingSource.DataMember = "IDCSTProcess.CBarCode"
lstBarCodes.DisplayMember = "BarCodeValue"
'lstBarCodes.ValueMember = "BarCodeNumber"
lstBarCodes.EndUpdate()
lstBarCodes.Refresh()

With this code, I get one value in the list: [0, CBarCode]

If I uncomment the "DataMember" line, I get this error: "DataMember property 'CBarCode' cannot be found on the DataSource". If I uncomment the ValueMember line, I get "cannot bind to new value member. Parameter name: value".

It seems like it is trying to bind to the collection itself, rather than the members of the collection. This is where I think I am going wrong, and would like to see some examples of it being done.

[Hack]

Since no one else has popped in, I'll go with these.

I found a few things. Hopefully one of them will help.

VB.NET

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/community...on-the-su.aspx

http://codebetter.com/blogs/brendan..../02/24116.aspx

C#

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/webfor...?display=Print

http://blogs.syrinx.com/blogs/dotnet...cs-part-1.aspx

[brouse]

so it seems I need to implement the IList interface?

I will investigate further (and try some things) and report back with my results.

Thanks for the links.

[brouse]

So the IList interface definitely is the key. I didn't want to lose my Dictionary collection features (key lookup), especially since I only needed the IList for the DataSourcing/Displaying. So what I did was add a method to the collection class that returns a List representation of the objects:

Public Function ToIList() As IList(Of CBarCode)

        Dim oList As New List(Of CBarCode)
        Dim oBarCode As CBarCode

        For Each oBarCode In MyBase.Values
            oList.Add(oBarCode)
        Next

        Return oList

End Function

Then I just changed my form code to use the List:

Private oList As New List(Of IDCSTProcess.CBarCode)

            oList = oBarCodes.ToIList()
            lstBarCodes.DataSource = oList
            lstBarCodes.DisplayMember = "BarCodeValue"
            lstBarCodes.ValueMember = "BarCodeNumber"

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction...

[Hack]

Thank you for coming back and posting your solution. It could help someone else with the same or similiar problem.