#1,011 – ComboBox Data Binding Basics, Part III

To display the items in a ComboBox using something more than a simple string, you set the ItemTemplate of the ComboBox to define the layout of each item.  When you set the ItemTemplate, you don’t set the DisplayMemberPath property.  DisplayMemberPath defines the template for each item in the ComboBox to be a TextBlock that displays a single string.

Below, we set an item template for a ComboBox that binds to a collection of Actor objects so that we display an image and some information about the actor, for each item.

        <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ActorList}" Margin="20"
                  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedActor}">
            <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <Image Source="{Binding Image}" Height="100"/>
                        <StackPanel Margin="10,0">
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding FullName}" FontWeight="Bold" />
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Dates}"/>
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding KnownFor}" FontStyle="Italic"/>
                        </StackPanel>
                    </StackPanel>
                </DataTemplate>
            </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
        </ComboBox>
        <Label Content="{Binding SelectedActor.NameAndDates}"/>

As we select an item, notice that the ComboBox changes size, so that the surface can show the entire item.