How to sort ComboBox without making a sort code.

Question

How to sort ComboBox without making a sort code.

VoyTec 651

I am wondering if there is a simple call for sorting ComboBox, without advanced code with fors, x++ etc...

Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-13T02:11:49.9466667+00:00

Do you mean do not use for loop to sort the ComboBoxItems?
VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T06:02:52.7266667+00:00

Yes, is it possible?
Otherwise I am asking for the best sorting solution possible, now...

Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-13T02:11:49.9466667+00:00

Do you mean do not use for loop to sort the ComboBoxItems?
VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T06:02:52.7266667+00:00

Yes, is it possible?
Otherwise I am asking for the best sorting solution possible, now...

Answer 1

Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Microsoft Vendor

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Currently, the ComboBox control doesn't contain a built-in method to sort its items. If you need to sort the items of the ComboBox, you will need to sort the item source of the ComboBox instead. The simplest way is to sort the source list with LINQ. Use the orderby command of LINQ sentence to change the source list.

Here is a sample I made and you could take look at it.

Xaml:


  <Grid>
        <ComboBox x:Name="FontsCombo" Header="Fonts" Height="88" Width="296"  DisplayMemberPath="Id"/>
    </Grid>

Code-behind:

  public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
    {
        public List<TestModel> source { get; set; }
        public MainPage()
        {
            this.InitializeComponent();
            source = new List<TestModel>();
            this.Loaded += MainPage_Loaded;
            
        }

        private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
            {
                Random random = new Random();
                int RandomNumber = random.Next(0, 100);
                TestModel model = new TestModel { Id = RandomNumber};
                source.Add(model);
            }
            // sort the source list by ID
            var newSource= from item in source
                           orderby item.Id
                           select item;

            FontsCombo.ItemsSource = newSource;
        }
    }

    public class TestModel 
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
    }

I generated 10 items with random numbers. Then I use the LINQ to get the newSource as the source of the ComboBox.

Thank you.

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VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T07:16:14.93+00:00

Does it keep default Index? Otherwise I need to use old Indexes and sort Items, somehow...
VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T07:17:44.86+00:00

The problem with this is because I use file with infromation about companies with:
[1] Name
[2] Description

[3] VAT

[4] Adress

And I have to sort it out, keeping all information sticking to the name.
Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-13T07:43:49.51+00:00

@VoyTec If I understand you correctly, you have a list which only contains the name of companies. After sorting the list, you want to get the original index of the selected item, then you could use the index to get other information of that company directly from other lists, right?
VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T07:46:39.3166667+00:00

Yes, one correction:
"...you want to get the original index of the selected item..." - Not selected, all items from list must be with original index number.
VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T07:55:05.75+00:00
Because I use this:

for (int x = 0; x < int.Parse(data_read[0]); x++) firms_COMBOBOX.Items.Add(data_read[1 + x * 4]);

and then selected item reads information from one file with [x] which is every 4 tabs next firm.
Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-13T08:25:02.4433333+00:00

So actually, you have a list which contains information like this. Let's call it OriginalSource

NameA

DescriptionA

VATA

AdressA

NameB

DescriptionB

...

NameC

....

Then you have a list which only contains Name, let's call it NameSrouce

When user select NameA, its index is X in NameSource, and then you will go to get other information like list[X+1], list[X+2] in OriginalSrouce. Do I understand it correctly?

Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Microsoft Vendor

If I'm understand your scenario correctly based on my last comment, I think there might be different ways to keep original index of the Name list.

You could try to sort the NameList into a list of KeyValuePair via LINQ first. Just like this

Name source List Result List

NameC KeyValuePair<NameA, index2>

NameB KeyValuePair<NameB, index1>

NameA KeyValuePair<NameC, index0>

After that, you could get two different list, one is the ordered name list, another is the list contains the corresponding original index. When you need get information for NameB, its index in ordered name list is 2, then we could get the corresponding original index from the indexlist like var originalindex = indexlist[2]

Full code here:

 private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
            {
                Random random = new Random();
                int RandomNumber = random.Next(0, 100);
                TestModel model = new TestModel { Id = RandomNumber};
                source.Add(model);
            }

            // sort the name source list
            var sorted = source
                .Select((x, i) => new KeyValuePair<int, int>(x.Id, i))
                .OrderBy(x => x.Key)
                .ToList();
            // this is the name list
            List<int> newSource = sorted.Select(x => x.Key).ToList();
            // this contains the origianl value 
            // save it as a global value
            indexList = sorted.Select(x => x.Value).ToList();

            // use the name list as combobox source.
            FontsCombo.ItemsSource = newSource;
           
        }

        private void FontsCombo_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            // when user select item for combobox
            int selectedIndex = FontsCombo.SelectedIndex;
            // get the origial index from the saved list
            var originalIndex = indexList[selectedIndex];


        }

VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T11:25:25.3333333+00:00

I think that will be it, thank you so much!
I'll check it out in the evening.

TY

VoyTec 651

I don't understand your code,
why this code doesn't work form me?:

int compare_1;
                        int compare_2;

                        for (int x = 0; x < int.Parse(data_read[0]); x++)
                        {
                            if (x > 0)
                            {
                                compare_1 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[x * 4 - 3]);

                                compare_2 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[(x * 4) + 5]);
                                if ((compare_1 > 0) && (compare_2 < 0))
                                {
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_name_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_text_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_nip_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_adress_TB.Text;
                                }
                            }
                            

                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 1]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 2]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 3]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 4]);

                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 1];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 2];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 3];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 4];
                        }

VoyTec 651 Reputation points

2023-03-13T19:09:03.77+00:00

since I failed to sort ComboBox i am trying to put data in right position in a file

VoyTec 651

It works! my workaround!
here is what I done:

int count_companies = int.Parse(data_read[0]) + 1;
                        file_save = count_companies.ToString();

                        int compare_1;
                        int compare_2;

                        for (int x = 0; x < int.Parse(data_read[0]); x++)
                        {
                            if (x > 0)
                            {
                                compare_1 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[x * 4 - 3]);

                                compare_2 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[(x * 4) + 1]);
                                if ((compare_1 > 0) && (compare_2 < 0))
                                {
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_name_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_text_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_nip_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_adress_TB.Text;
                                }
                            }


                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 1]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 2]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 3]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 4]);

                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 1];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 2];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 3];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 4];
                        }

                        await FileIO.WriteTextAsync(file_firms_load, file_save, Windows.Storage.Streams.UnicodeEncoding.Utf8);

Roy Li - MSFT 27,746 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-14T01:16:40.34+00:00

@VoyTec I think I still doesn't understand your scenario very well, so the LINQ doesn't work. But its very glad to hear that you've find out your own solution for this.

Answer 2

I made a workaround to save data in right position:

int count_companies = int.Parse(data_read[0]) + 1;
                        file_save = count_companies.ToString();

                        int compare_1;
                        int compare_2;

                        for (int x = 0; x < int.Parse(data_read[0]); x++)
                        {
                            if (x > 0)
                            {
                                compare_1 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[x * 4 - 3]);

                                compare_2 = company_name_TB.Text.CompareTo(data_read[(x * 4) + 1]);
                                if ((compare_1 > 0) && (compare_2 < 0))
                                {
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_name_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_text_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_nip_TB.Text;
                                    file_save = file_save + "\n" + company_adress_TB.Text;
                                }
                            }


                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 1]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 2]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 3]);
                            data_read.Add(data_read[x * 4 + 4]);

                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 1];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 2];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 3];
                            file_save = file_save + "\n" + data_read[x * 4 + 4];
                        }

                        await FileIO.WriteTextAsync(file_firms_load, file_save, Windows.Storage.Streams.UnicodeEncoding.Utf8);

How to sort ComboBox without making a sort code.

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