Trying to store a collection of information in a microsoft combobox dropdown item, so that when it's selected, you can pull those values out (similar to react etc.) Is this possible?

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()

$combo = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$combo.Items.add("test")

#get value of selected item here (this code does not work)
write-output($combo.Items[$combo.SelectedIndex].value)

In this example:

$DBArray = Get-Content "$Global:DashboardDir\IncludeFiles\Datapools\Tables\Tables.txt"
#Setup Table Dropdown
foreach ($Database in $DBArray) {
    $info = $database.split("|")
    if ($Database -ne 'SQLServer|DBName|TableName') {
        $SelectQueryCDC_Tables.Items.add(@{
                value   = $info
                display = "CDC Enabled for $($info[2])?"
            })
    }
}

which displays:

I would like to store the full $info array as a value somewhere so that I can manipulate it later, whilst still only displaying the display property.

CodePudding user response：

You just need to remove the .value property accessor:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $combo.Items[$combo.SelectedIndex]
test

This is because the Items property is a collection of objects, and there is no value property on an object:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $combo.Items.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
False    False    ObjectCollection                         System.Object

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $combo.Items[$combo.SelectedIndex].GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     True     String                                   System.Object

Now that you've updated your question to indicate that you're adding hastables to the collection, you can use the key of the item in the hashtable that you want to display:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()

$combo = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$combo.Items.add(@{
    value   = "the info array would be here"
    display = "CDC Enabled display message here"
})

#show the display message of the selected item here
write-output($combo.Items[$combo.SelectedIndex]['display'])

You can read more about how to use hashtables here: Everything you wanted to know about hashtables

Ok, with the latest edit to the question, it appears that you're missing two things:

1. use a [PSCustomObject] type for the item being added to the combobox
2. set the DisplayMember property of the combobox to the property that you want to show

For example:

foreach ($database in $DBArray) {
    $info = $database.split("|")

    if ($database -ne 'SQLServer|DBName|TableName') {
        $combo.Items.add([PSCustomObject]@{
                value   = $info
                display = "CDC Enabled for $($info[2])?"
            })
    }
}

$combo.DisplayMember = 'display'