ComboBox not calling MyClass.ToString()

Question

I have the following code:

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public BindingList<Class> List = new BindingList<Class>();

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        List.Add(new Class());
        comboBox1.DataSource = List;
    }
}

public class Class : Dictionary<string, string>
{
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return "Class";
    }
}

The problem is that the combo box shows the text "(Collection)" instead of "Class". Whenever I remove the Dictionary<string, string> as an ancestor of Class, the code show's "Class" as I want it to. Even when I derive it from another base class I wrote myself it works OK. This is of course not the real program but the problem isolated. So am I missing something or I don't have a choice other than declare a Dictionary<string, string> field in Class instead of subclassing it? (Oh, and by the way, I already tried adding a breakpoint in the ToString function and it's not being called.)

Answer 1

You could declare your own BindingList subclass which also overrides ToString() and returns the value of ToString() of one of its elements:

public class MyBindingList<T> : BindingList<T>
{
    public override string ToString()
    {
        if (this.Count == 0)
        {
            return "Empty BindingList";
        }

        return "BindingList of " + this[0].ToString();
    }
}

Then just use MyBindingList where you use BindingList in your code.

Answer 2

You can try this:

comboBox1.FormattingEnabled = false;

I have tried it and now the combobox shows the text 'Class' and not "(Collection)".