How to populate combobox with xml using VB?

QuadFather · April 6th, 2010, 04:35 PM

I'm using VB (Visual Studio 2008).
I want to populate ComboBox1 with the items listed in Profiles.xml

Here is the xml file:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Profiles>
<Name>
</Name>
</Profiles>

I just want the combo box to list all the names ("Name") in the xml file ("Profiles.xml"). Can't find any help online, for the life of me.

Please help!

samjudson · April 7th, 2010, 03:34 AM

Well I searched for "ComboBox populate XML" and the very first link was to a code sample on how to do it.

Admittedly that was in C#, so let us know if its too hard to translate: http://www.debugging.com/bug/9439

QuadFather · April 7th, 2010, 08:15 AM

Yeah, I found a whole bunch of things saying how to do it in C, but nothing on how to do it in VB. I tried modifying the code for VB, but I'm afraid I'm just not that good yet.

I think I need a little more help.

Martin Honnen · April 7th, 2010, 08:23 AM

You haven't told us what kind of combo box that is (e.g. Windows Forms, ASP.NET, WPF). As for the XML part with VB.NET you can use LINQ to XML: LINQ to XML

QuadFather · April 7th, 2010, 08:25 AM

Oh, I'm sorry ... It's a Windows Forms ComboBox.
Don't think I even know what the other kind are.

samjudson · April 7th, 2010, 08:36 AM

Well a small bit of code I wrote looks like this:

Code:

Dim doc As XDocument = XDocument.Load("Profiles.xml")
ComboBox1.DataSource = (From element In doc.Descendants("Name") Select element.Value).ToList()

but there may be too much in there to understand if you are just beginning.

A similar bit of code, which is closer to the one I linked to is as follows:

Code:

Dim doc As XDocument = XDocument.Load("Profiles.xml")
For Each element As XElement In doc.Descendants("Name")
    ComboBox1.Items.Add(element.Value)
Next

Or if you want the old school version, which is a completed conversion of what I linked to:

Code:

Dim doc As New XmlDocument()
doc.Load("Profiles.xml")
Dim nameList As XmlNodeList = doc.SelectNodes("/Profiles/Name")
For Each name As XmlNode In nameList
    ComboBox1.Items.Add(name.InnerText)
Next

Martin Honnen · April 7th, 2010, 08:40 AM

Pseudo code that first clears the ComboBox.Items collection and then adds the strings contained in the 'Name' elements is as follows:

Code:

comboBox1.Items.Clear()
comboBox1.Items.AddRange(XElement.Load("Profiles.xml").<Name>.Select(Function(n) n.Value).ToArray())

QuadFather · April 7th, 2010, 09:01 AM

Fantastic!

Now, it would be perfect if I could alphabetize the items in the combobox ... any easy ways to do that?

Just so everyone know, I really am looking for this stuff on my own, but I'm find it very difficult to find exactly the info I need. Most of it seems really generic, and I'd have to modify it ... I'm just a newbie!

Martin Honnen · April 7th, 2010, 09:07 AM

If you want to order the items alphabetically then the following change does that:

Code:

        ComboBox1.Items.AddRange(XElement.Load(Application.StartupPath + "\Profiles.xml").<Name>.Select(Function(n) n.Value).OrderBy(Function(s) s).ToArray())