When creating a Combo Box, Can I populate the drop down options from an XML file?

If the XML is Dataset compatible, the resulting XmlDataDocument object has a Dataset property exposed. You can use your standard combo-box binding to a dataset.

A simple Dataset compatible XML

<document>
  <table>
    <name>Table 1</name>
    <field1>Field 1 Value</field1>
    . . .
    <fieldn>Field n Value</fieldn> 
  </table>
  . . .
  <table>
    <name>Table N</name>
    <field1>Field 1 Value</field1>
    . . .
    <fieldn>Field n Value</fieldn> 
  </table>
</document>

Hi,

In theory can load it from any kind of source but not via the designer. These kind of things need to be done via code. Here is an example: http://www.functionx.com/vcsharp/xml/comboboxitems.htm

Greetz,

Geert

Geert Verhoeven
Consultant @ Ausy Belgium

My Personal Blog

If the XML is Dataset compatible, the resulting XmlDataDocument object has a Dataset property exposed. You can use your standard combo-box binding to a dataset.

A simple Dataset compatible XML

<document>
  <table>
    <name>Table 1</name>
    <field1>Field 1 Value</field1>
    . . .
    <fieldn>Field n Value</fieldn> 
  </table>
  . . .
  <table>
    <name>Table N</name>
    <field1>Field 1 Value</field1>
    . . .
    <fieldn>Field n Value</fieldn> 
  </table>
</document>

You can also do this;

Change NO1, NO2 and so forth to just NO. The xml now represent a dataset with table name NO. The original XML will just give you a dataset with multiple tables named NO1, NO2 and so forth.

System.Xml.XmlDataDocument xmlDoc = null;

xmlDoc.Load("<path to the xml file>");

Now you can have fun with xmlDoc.Dataset object.

You also manipulate the XML nodes using the Dataset itself as if it's a database table.