Setting Item Value property and Control Text

[M Patrick]

I am manually loading a combobox during a postback with:

Do While CoReader.Read
  If CoReader.IsDBNull(0) Then StateNameString = "" Else StateNameString = CoReader.Item("StateName").ToString.Trim
  Dim item As New RadComboBoxItem(StateNameString)
  Me.RadComboBoxState.Items.Add(item)
Loop

As I add an item, how do I set/add its value? No sooner that I posted this, than I think I found the answer. See below. If it is not correct please let me know.

Do While CoReader.Read
  If CoReader.IsDBNull(0) Then StateNameString = "" Else StateNameString = CoReader.Item("StateName").ToString.Trim
  Dim item As New RadComboBoxItem(StateNameString)
  If CoReader.IsDBNull(1) Then item.Value = "" Else item.Value = CoReader.Item("State").ToString.Trim.ToUpper
  Me.RadComboBoxState.Items.Add(item)
Loop

Once the entire contol is populated by the above code, I would like to set the Text property of the control to the user's setting. Let's say the user has a Text value of "Maine" and a Value of "ME".. My code is not setting the TEXT property during postback.

If CoReader.IsDBNull(0) Then Me.RadComboBoxState.Text = "" Else RadComboBoxState.Text = CoReader.Item("StateName").ToString.Trim

What is the correct way to set the TEXT property during a Postback?

Finally and this is a programing best practices question, do you think I should set the SelectedItem and/or SelectedValue property of the control when it is known, as in the above example? Or is just populating the TEXT property field sufficient?

Thanks,
pat

[Kalina]

Hello M Patrick,

Please take a look at the "Working with Items in Server Side Code" help article.

Regards,
Kalina
the Telerik team

[M Patrick]

Thank you for the link. It describes exactly what I need. I have a slight modification which I have shown below.
For an example: A state list with the state name as the Text value and the 2 letter State abbreviation as the Value. I store the 2 letter abbreviation in the database but want the user to select the full state text name.
To set the SelectedIndex property which will set the Text property of the control to the selected index's text value if the item  "value" are unique and known, try:

Dim item As RadComboBoxItem = Nothing
Dim StateAbbrevString as string = string.empty
               Dim index As Integer = -1
               'Get a reference to a RadComboBoxItem with Text property = "Pennsylvania".
               item = RadComboBox1.FindItemByText("Pennsylvania")
               StateAbbrevString = Item.Value.tostring.trim

My country list is similar except the item Value is not unique. e.g. The Country abbreviation, US, has several common country name. The include, United States, Virgin islands and several others. When I want to display the common name which was recalled from the database, I use the code below.

Dim item As RadComboBoxItem = Nothing
Dim index As Integer = -1
'Get a reference to a RadComboBoxItem with Text property = "United States".
 item = RadComboBox1.FindItemByText("United States")
RadCombobox1.SelectedIndex = Item.Index

This was not obvious to me, as the intelisense for Selectedindex states that this property can be used for Getting the value. It does not state that it can be used to Set the value. But it definately can be used for setting the property.

Thanks again,
pat