When I first started to use Dictionary<> in C#, I had the idea of using it whenever possible. Then I thought that it should be an easy method to use Dictionary<> to populate combo boxes (with no effort, if possible).

There's no effortless method to use them in such manner, but I figured out my easiest method. The function is easy as follows. You can use it wherever you want, provided with parameters combo box and dictionary.

public static void FillCombo(System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox cmb,                                     Dictionary<int,ProjectInfo> projects) {     // grab a List<> from a Dictionary<>     List<ProjectInfo> lst = new List<ProjectInfo>(projects.Values);         // create an initial item     lst.Insert(0, new ProjectInfo(0, "<PROJECTS>"));                        cmb.DataSource = lst;     cmb.ValueMember = "ProjectID";     cmb.DisplayMember = "ProjectName"; }

Be careful with these :

- You should define Public Property blocks in your class as I did with ProjectID and ProjectName.
- It's convenient to define an appropriate constructor to create initial item
- There's no error handling in the code, you should add your own ones - if appropriate

Here's a Visual Studio 2005 project, in which I demonstrate how to use it.