ComboBox.IsEditable Property

The IsEditable and IsReadOnly properties specify how the ComboBox behaves when the user does one of the following:

• Enters a string to select an item in the ComboBox.

• Enters a string that does not correspond to an item in the ComboBox.

• Selects part of the string that is in the text box.

• Copies or pastes a value into the text box.

The following table describes the actions the user can and cannot take, depending on the values of IsEditable and IsReadOnly.

When IsEditable is equal to false, the ComboBox uses a ContentPresenter to display the currently selected item; when IsEditable is equal to true, a TextBox is used for this purpose instead. Note that a TextBox only displays plain text, and that a ComboBoxItem may include non-plain text content, such as images.

The following examples create ComboBox controls that contain images as items instead of text. If the IsEditable property is set to true, the TextBox displays the value returned by the image's ToString method. To avoid a TextBox with unexpected text, use the TextSearch.Text and TextSearch.TextPath properties to assign text to be displayed.

<ComboBox IsEditable="true" TextSearch.TextPath="Name">
  <Image Name="Cat" Source="data\cat.png"/>
  <Image Name="Dog" Source="data\dog.png"/>
  <Image Name="Fish" Source="data\fish.png"/>
</ComboBox>

<ComboBox IsEditable="true">
  <Image TextSearch.Text="Cat" Source="data\cat.png"/>
  <Image TextSearch.Text="Dog" Source="data\dog.png"/>
  <Image TextSearch.Text="Fish" Source="data\fish.png"/>
</ComboBox>

Another solution is to use the DisplayMemberPath property. The drop-down control of the ComboBox will not display the images but will display the text you assigned.

The following example shows how to use DisplayMemberPath.

<ComboBox IsEditable="true" DisplayMemberPath="Name">
  <Image Name="CAT" Source="data\cat.png"/>
  <Image Name="DOG" Source="data\dog.png"/>
  <Image Name="FISH" Source="data\fish.png"/>
</ComboBox>

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows Server 8 Beta, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

Reference