I can't seem to find an easy to use, .net native way to get Comboboxes on .net winforms to display one value and return another based on the selection without creating my own helper class, with the knowledge that winforms is going to display the ToString method on the object that you put in it.

This is how I'm doing it now, very generically. First, create the helper class.

```
 Public Class ListItem
     Public Value As Object
     Public DisplayString As String

     Public Sub New(ByVal NewValue As Object, ByVal NewDisplayString As String)
         Value = NewValue
         DisplayString = NewDisplayString
     End Sub

     Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
         Return DisplayString
     End Function
 End Class

```

then, to load the combobox from a collection or whatever.

```
    For Each o as WhateverObject In CollectionIwantToaddItemsFrom
        li = New ListItem(o.ValueToReturn, o.ValueToDisplay)
        Me.ComboBox1.Items.Add(li)
    Next

```

and finally, to use the object

```
Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
if me.combobox1.selecteditem is nothing then exit sub
Dim li As ListItem = me.ComboBox1.SelectedItem
Dim o as object = li.value 
'do stuff with o.
end sub

```

I'm sure there is something I'm better to use in the framework that I'm over looking. What is it?