Multiple item selection made easy with intuitive check box selection.
Search and filter items by placing an intuitive UI at the top of the dropdown.
Rich feature set includes autocompletion, check box selection, sorting, watermark text, and appearance customization.

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Overview

The WinForms ComboBox (multiselect combobox) control allows users to type a value, choose an item, or choose multiple items. Any UI control can be loaded as the header of the dropdown. Users can perform customized actions like search and filter in the dropdown. The control’s rich feature set includes autocomplete, sorting, watermark text, appearance customization, and more.

Data binding

The WinForms ComboBox control has data binding support to work out-of-the-box with all the popular data sources like IEnumerable (IList, IBindingList, ObservableCollection) and data tables. It also supports sorting and filtering. Data can be shown based on the display member and value member. The control also allows users to bind the data source at the designer level.

Data binding documentation

winforms combobox data binding illustration

Selection

The WinForms ComboBox control provides support to select an item or multiple items from the dropdown.
Users can easily select multiple items by using the checkboxes in the dropdown.
The control displays a confirmation button in the dropdown. It supports customization of the selected item’s appearance.

Autocomplete (filter by typing)

winforms combobox showing editing with suggestions in dropdown

Suggestion

A list of items is displayed in the dropdown based on the text typed in the editor control.
Users can perform case-sensitive autocompletion.
Users can filter suggested items using starts with or contains.

winforms combobox showing editing with appended text

Append

The control completes the user-typed word with suggestion text to help users search for correct items easily.
Users select an item from the dropdown list based on the appended word in the edit control.

winforms combobox showing editing with suggestion and appended text

Suggest and append

This combines the operations of suggestion and append.
Users can perform case-sensitive autocompletion.
Control completes a word that the user types with suggestion text and filters the suggestions. Users can choose an item from the filtered list.

Sort

Sort the items in the dropdown in either ascending or descending order.
Sort items by writing your own custom logic.

Sorting documentation

winforms combobox shows sorted data in descening order

winforms combobox shows filtered data

Filtering

The WinForms ComboBox allows users to filter data. For example, items in the dropdown can be filtered based on user input.

Filtering documentation

Watermark

A watermark provides a hint to users about the data to be selected from the listed values.

Watermark documentation

winforms combobox shows watermark text

Appearance style

winforms combobox styling

Styling

Customize the appearance of the edit control and dropdown list by setting the:

Background color
Text color
Font

winforms combobox conditional styling

Conditional styling

Customize the appearance of the dropdown list items based on the data.

Conditional styling documentation

winforms combobox shows image in dropdown

Users can load an image to each list item in the dropdown. Images can also be aligned with the text.

winforms combobox shows custom drawing in dropdown

Custom drawing

Make a custom drawing for every list item in the WinForms Combobox control.

Customize the dropdown position to load the pop-up where needed.

winforms combobox dropdown position

winforms combobox clear button

Clear button

Show or hide the clear button, which is used to clear the editor value and selection.

Built-in themes

The WinForms ComboBox control provides Office 2016 theme support to adapt the control to the rest of a business application. The following Office 2016 themes are supported:

Colorful
Black
Dark Gray
White

Office 2016 black theme in winforms combobox

winforms combobox item height

Item height

Users can adjust (auto fit) the item height in the dropdown based on the content of the item to enhance readability. It is also possible to set the item height conditionally.

Item height documentation

Change the height and width of the dropdown.
Resize the dropdown dynamically using an intuitive resizing thumb.

winforms combobox dropdown sizing

Localization

Localize all the static default strings in the WinForms ComboBox control to any supported language.

Localization documentation

localization in winforms combobox

right to left mode in winforms combobox

Right to left (RTL)

The control supports right-to-left (RTL) rendering for users working in right-to-left languages like Hebrew, Arabic, or Persian.

UI automation

The WinForms ComboBox control is compatible with Coded UI and UFT (formerly QTP) automation tools to automate applications.

UI automation documentation

winforms combobox ui automation illustration

WinForms ComboBox Code Example

Easily get started with the WinForms ComboBox using a few simple lines of C# code example as demonstrated below. Also explore our WinForms ComboBox Example that shows you how to configure a ComboBox in WinForms.

c#
using Syncfusion.WinForms.ListView;
namespace WinFormsApp1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            List<string> usStates = new List<string>();
            usStates.Add("Alaska");
            usStates.Add("Arizona");
            usStates.Add("Arkansas");
            usStates.Add("California");
            usStates.Add("Colorado");
            usStates.Add("Connecticut");
            usStates.Add("Delaware");
            usStates.Add("Florida");
            usStates.Add("Georgia");
            SfComboBox sfComboBox = new SfComboBox();
            sfComboBox.Size = new Size(180, 24);
            sfComboBox.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend;
            sfComboBox.DataSource = usStates;
            this.Controls.Add(sfComboBox);
        }
    }
}

Not sure how to create your first WinForms ComboBox? Our documentation can help.

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Frequently Asked Questions

✅ Why should you choose Syncfusion WinForms ComboBox?

The Syncfusion WinForms ComboBox provides the following features:

Multiple item selection made easy with intuitive check box selection.
Search and filter items by placing an intuitive UI at the top of the dropdown.
A rich feature set that includes autocompletion, check box selection, sorting, watermark text, and appearance customization.
Work with a simple configuration and API.
One of the best WinForms ComboBox in the market that offers feature-rich UI to interact with the software.
Use touch-friendly and responsive features.
Learn quickly and get started with WinForms ComboBox using its extensive demos and documentation.

✅ Where can I find the Syncfusion WinForms ComboBox demo?

You can find our WinForms ComboBox demo on GitHub location.

✅ Can I download and utilize the Syncfusion WinForms ComboBox for free?

No, this is a commercial product and requires a paid license. However, a free community license is also available for companies and individuals whose organizations have less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue, 5 or fewer developers, and 10 or fewer total employees.

✅ How do I get started with Syncfusion WinForms ComboBox?

A good place to start would be our comprehensive getting started documentation.

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It is the most complete component set available. Also very handy is the fact that there is a community edition, this gives me the opportunity to test thing at home without buying a separate license.

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