Question:

I have defined Combobox's ItemSource in List object. I want to reach the ComboBoxItem by using FindName() method but it always returns null. I have tried ApplyTemplate() at the beginning and I also have tried to reach the Item using Combobox.Template. Here is my code. Any suggestions?

List<string> subjectsList = e.Result; cbCategory.ItemsSource = subjectsList; cbCategory.SelectedItem = cbCategory.FindName("DefaultChatSubject");

By the way, I do not have any problem about the Items in ItemSource.

The <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.frameworktemplate.findname%28v=vs.110%29.aspx" rel="nofollow">FrameworkTemplate.FindName Method</a> <em>Finds an element that has the provided identifier name</em>. From the linked page on MSDN:

<blockquote>

If the element has child elements, these child elements are all searched recursively for the requested named element.

FindName operates within the current element's namescope. For details, see <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms746659.aspx" rel="nofollow">WPF XAML Namescopes</a>.

</blockquote>

In order to use the FindName method successfully, the child element that you are looking for <em>must</em> have their Name property set. As it is somewhat unlikely that a data bound collection of items will have the ComboBoxItem.Name property set, it is also unlikely that this will work for you.

A better way to set the selected item is like this:

cbCategory.SelectedItem = subjectsList.First(i => i.Property == "DefaultChatSubject");

Or if your collection items are just strings, like this:

cbCategory.SelectedItem = "DefaultChatSubject";

FindName is meant to find a named child element of a FrameworkElement. It does not find an item string in the Items collection of an ItemsControl (like your ComboBox).

You could simply call this instead:

cbCategory.SelectedItem = "DefaultChatSubject";