How to get values of selected items in CheckBoxList with foreach in ASP.NET C#?

Question

I have a CheckBoxList like this:

<asp:CheckBoxList ID="CBLGold" runat="server" CssClass="cbl">
    <asp:ListItem Value="TGJU"> TG </asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="GOLDOZ"> Gold </asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="SILVEROZ"> Silver </asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="NERKH"> NE </asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="TALA"> Tala </asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="YARAN"> Sekeh </asp:ListItem>
</asp:CheckBoxList>

Now I want to get the value of the selected items from this CheckBoxList using foreach, and put the values into a list.

Barbiturism

#9523763 – Somerset

Answer 1

Note that I prefer the code to be short.

List<ListItem> selected = CBLGold.Items.Cast<ListItem>()
    .Where(li => li.Selected)
    .ToList();

or with a simple foreach:

List<ListItem> selected = new List<ListItem>();
foreach (ListItem item in CBLGold.Items)
    if (item.Selected) selected.Add(item);

If you just want the ListItem.Value:

List<string> selectedValues = CBLGold.Items.Cast<ListItem>()
   .Where(li => li.Selected)
   .Select(li => li.Value)
   .ToList();

Garofalo

@نرخیاب: edited my answer to show how to select only the values. var is just a shortcut for List<ListItem>. – Garofalo

If you get an error that .Cast is not a method on the ListItemCollection, you'll need to add a reference: "using System.Linq;" – Cavern

Thats exactly what I needed plus to access on server side. String.Join(";", selectedValues.ToArray()) – Whitleather

To top up on this solution, to convert the values to list of int, just do this ".Cast<ListItem>().Where(li => li.Selected).Select(li => li.Value).Select(int.Parse).ToList()" – Hobby

Answer 2

foreach (ListItem item in CBLGold.Items)
{
    if (item.Selected)
    {
        string selectedValue = item.Value;
    }
}

Derrickderriey

Answer 3

Good afternoon, you could always use a little LINQ to get the selected list items and then do what you want with the results:

var selected = CBLGold.Items.Cast<ListItem>().Where(x => x.Selected);
// work with selected...

Notable

Answer 4

Following suit from the suggestions here, I added an extension method to return a list of the selected items using LINQ for any type that Inherits from System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListControl.

Every ListControl object has an Items property of type ListItemCollection. ListItemCollection exposes a collection of ListItems, each of which have a Selected property.

C Sharp:

public static IEnumerable<ListItem> GetSelectedItems(this ListControl checkBoxList)
{
    return from ListItem li in checkBoxList.Items where li.Selected select li;
}

Visual Basic:

<Extension()> _
Public Function GetSelectedItems(ByVal checkBoxList As ListControl) As IEnumerable(Of ListItem)
    Return From li As ListItem In checkBoxList.Items Where li.Selected
End Function

Then, just use like this in either language:

myCheckBoxList.GetSelectedItems()

Taler

Answer 5

List<string> values =new list<string>();
foreach(ListItem Item in ChkList.Item)
{
    if(Item.Selected)
    values.Add(item.Value);
}

Subtraction

Answer 6

To top up on @Tim Schmelter, in which to get back the List<int> instead,

List<string> selectedValues = CBLGold.Items.Cast<ListItem>()
   .Where(li => li.Selected)
   .Select(li => li.Value)
   .Select(int.Parse)
   .ToList();

Hobby

Answer 7

If you have a databound checklistbox it does not work to get item(j).Selected, because the control does not have a selected attribute. If you clearSelections i.e. on Load, then apparently it now understands item(j).selected.

Strip

Answer 8

Just in case you want to store the selected values in single column seperated by , then you can use below approach

string selectedItems = String.Join(",", CBLGold.Items.OfType<ListItem>().Where(r => r.Selected).Select(r => r.Value));

if you want to store Text not values then Change the r.Value to r.Text

Nevels

Answer 9

string s= string.Empty

for (int i = 0; i < Chkboxlist.Items.Count; i++)

{

    if (Chkboxlist.Items[i].Selected)
    {
        s+= Chkboxlist.Items[i].Value + ";"; 
    }

}

Diet

1. You should explain your code a little. 2. Why are you posting an answer to a one year old question that already has an accepted answer? – Pga

Answer 10

In my codebehind i created a checkboxlist from sql db in my Page_Load event and in my button_click event did all the get values from checkboxlist etc.

So when i checked some checkboxes and then clicked my button the first thing that happend was that my page_load event recreated the checkboxlist thus not having any boxes checked when it ran my get checkbox values... I've missed to add in the page_load event the if (!this.IsPostBack)

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   if (!this.IsPostBack)
   {
      // db query and create checkboxlist and other
      SqlConnection dbConn = new SqlConnection(WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ConnString"].ConnectionString);
      string query;
      try
      {
        query = "SELECT [name], [mail] FROM [users]";
        dbConn.Open();
        SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, dbConn);
        DataSet ds = new DataSet();
        da.Fill(ds);
        if (ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count != 0)
        {
          checkboxlist1.DataSource = ds;
          checkboxlist1.DataTextField = "name";
          checkboxlist1.DataValueField = "mail";
          checkboxlist1.DataBind();
        }
        else
        {
          Response.Write("No Results found");
        }
       }
       catch (Exception ex)
       {
          Response.Write("<br>" + ex);
       }
       finally
       {
          dbConn.Close();
       }
   }
}

protected void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
   string strChkBox = string.Empty;
   foreach (ListItem li in checkboxlist1.Value)
    {
      if (li.Selected == true)
       {
         strChkBox += li.Value + "; ";    
         // use only   strChkBox += li + ", ";   if you want the name of each checkbox checked rather then it's value.
       }
    }
   Response.Write(strChkBox);
 }

And the output was as expected, a semicolon separeted list for me to use in a mailsend function:

    [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

A long answer to a small problem. Please note that i'm far from an expert at this and know that there are better solutions then this but it might help out for some.

Inez

This does not provide an answer to the question; it's just a longwinded description of how you wrote a similar thing but it didn't work because you... didn't write it correctly. Answers on Stack Overflow should be direct attempts to answer the question that was asked or problem that was posed; they're not the place to share similar anecdotes. – Cenacle

Answer 11

I like to use this simple method to get the selected values and join them into a string

private string JoinCBLSelectedValues(CheckBoxList cbl, string separator = "")
{
    return string.Join(separator, cbl.Items.Cast<ListItem>().Where(li => li.Selected).ToList());
}

Deth