ASP.NET Listbox databound to List of custom objects. Does it keep the actual objects?

Question

Hi All, in ASP.NET, I've bound a listbox control to a List of custom class (consisting of a TimeSpan and Int members). the ToString() function just displays them both as a long string.

Now I want to save the modified listbox into the DB again, I need to use the custom class objects again.

Does the ListBox save the actual custom objects once its databound? or only the string representations?

If so, how do I get them from the LB?

Answer 1

Googling doesn't seem to help much, but it seems to me that a databound ListBox contains objects called ListItems, which have a Text and a Value property. The databinding figures out which is which from your custom class and displays them.

Short answer: no, it does not look like the ListBox is storing the actual class.

Answer 2

Once you've created the values into a collection which you are binding to your listbox then you could use viewstate to persist them between postbacks.

e.g.

ViewState["TimespanItems"] = myListHere;

myListHere = (myListTypeHere) ViewState["TimespanItems"];