ListControl.DisplayMember Property

Definition

Gets or sets the property to display for this ListControl.

C#
[System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DataMemberFieldConverter, System.Design, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")]
public string DisplayMember { get; set; }
C#
[System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DataMemberFieldConverter, System.Design, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")]
public string DisplayMember { get; set; }
C#
[System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DataMemberFieldConverter, System.Design, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")]
public string DisplayMember { get; set; }
C#
[System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter("System.Windows.Forms.Design.DataMemberFieldConverter, System.Windows.Forms.Design, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")]
public string DisplayMember { get; set; }

Property Value

A String specifying the name of an object property that is contained in the collection specified by the DataSource property. The default is an empty string ("").

Attributes

Examples

The following code example is a complete application that shows how you can use DataSource, DisplayMember, ValueMember, and SelectedValue members of the ListControl class as implemented by the ListBox class. The example loads an ArrayList and the list box. When the user selects an item in the list box, the selected value is used to return the data associated with the selected item.

C#
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;

namespace MyListControlSample
{
    public class ListBoxSample3 : Form
    {
        private ListBox ListBox1 = new ListBox();
        private Label label1 = new Label();
        private TextBox textBox1 = new TextBox();

        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Application.Run(new ListBoxSample3());
        }

        public ListBoxSample3()
        {
            this.ClientSize = new Size(307, 206);
            this.Text = "ListBox Sample3";

            ListBox1.Location = new Point(54, 16);
            ListBox1.Name = "ListBox1";
            ListBox1.Size = new Size(240, 130);

            label1.Location = new Point(14, 150);
            label1.Name = "label1";
            label1.Size = new Size(40, 24);
            label1.Text = "Value";

            textBox1.Location = new Point(54, 150);
            textBox1.Name = "textBox1";
            textBox1.Size = new Size(240, 24);
            
            this.Controls.AddRange(new Control[] { ListBox1, label1, textBox1 });

            // Populate the list box using an array as DataSource.
            ArrayList USStates = new ArrayList();
            USStates.Add(new USState("Alabama", "AL"));
            USStates.Add(new USState("Washington", "WA"));
            USStates.Add(new USState("West Virginia", "WV"));
            USStates.Add(new USState("Wisconsin", "WI"));
            USStates.Add(new USState("Wyoming", "WY"));
            ListBox1.DataSource = USStates;

            // Set the long name as the property to be displayed and the short
            // name as the value to be returned when a row is selected.  Here
            // these are properties; if we were binding to a database table or
            // query these could be column names.
            ListBox1.DisplayMember = "LongName";
            ListBox1.ValueMember = "ShortName";

            // Bind the SelectedValueChanged event to our handler for it.
            ListBox1.SelectedValueChanged += 
                new EventHandler(ListBox1_SelectedValueChanged);

            // Ensure the form opens with no rows selected.
            ListBox1.ClearSelected();
        }

        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
        }

        private void ListBox1_SelectedValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (ListBox1.SelectedIndex != -1)
            {
                textBox1.Text = ListBox1.SelectedValue.ToString();
                // If we also wanted to get the displayed text we could use
                // the SelectedItem item property:
                // string s = ((USState)ListBox1.SelectedItem).LongName;
            }
        }
    }

    public class USState
    {
        private string myShortName;
        private string myLongName;

        public USState(string strLongName, string strShortName)
        {

            this.myShortName = strShortName;
            this.myLongName = strLongName;
        }

        public string ShortName
        {
            get
            {
                return myShortName;
            }
        }

        public string LongName
        {

            get
            {
                return myLongName;
            }
        }
    }
}

Remarks

The controls that inherit from ListControl can display diverse types of objects. If the specified property does not exist on the object or the value of DisplayMember is an empty string (""), the results of the object's ToString method are displayed instead.

If the new display member cannot be set, the previous display member setting is maintained.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
Windows Desktop 3.0, 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9