I have a dilemma whereby I have a form which contains a number of comboboxes that contain information/options/items that may be invalid/out-of-date in certain circumstances.
I can't simply remove the out-of-date information from the items, but I do want to give the user a visual-clue when options are invalid.
I was thinking of colouring in the Items (probably red) to indicate if & when they are invalid. I don't necessarily need to prevent a user from selecting an invalid option, just make them visually aware that they are doing so.
Can this be done? Can you - dyamically - change the colo(u)r of combobox items?
Thanks,
You may try DrawItem event of ComboBox. Keep your dates on a list and compare them with ID's and brush your items.
private void comboBox1_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
// Draw the background
e.DrawBackground();
// Get the item text
string text = ((ComboBox)sender).Items[e.Index].ToString();
// Determine the forecolor based on whether or not the item is selected
Brush brush;
if (YourListOfDates[e.Index] < DateTime.Now)// compare date with your list.
{
brush = Brushes.Red;
}
else
{
brush = Brushes.Green;
}
// Draw the text
e.Graphics.DrawString(text, ((Control)sender).Font, brush, e.Bounds.X, e.Bounds.Y);
}
To fire this event (thanks to @Bolu)
You need to change ComboBox.DrawMode to OwnerDrawFixed/OwnerDrawVariable to fire the comboBox_DrawItem