title: Padright in combo box displaymember
body: <p>I have the following 2 segments of code which populates my combo box but the First Name column obviously is a squiggly one since surnames are various lengths. How could I use something like padright to align the first name column? I have other code using a binding source method but it seems a bit long winded &amp; I'd like to improve on that for all the combos I still have to create.</p>
  
  <pre><code>If RadioButton1.Checked Then
          strSQL = "select *, Surname + '   ' + First_Name as Name from tblCompetitors order by Surname, First_Name"
          cboData()
      End If
  
  Public Sub cboData()
      Dim dt As New DataTable
  
      Using conn As New SqlClient.SqlConnection(connString)
          If conn.State = ConnectionState.Closed Then
              conn.Open()
          End If
  
          Using com As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand(strSQL, conn)
              Dim dr As SqlDataReader = com.ExecuteReader()
              'Dim dt As DataTable = New DataTable
              dt.Load(dr)
              ' as an example set the ValueMember and DisplayMember'
              cboFindCompetitor.ValueMember = "Competitor_Idx"
              cboFindCompetitor.DisplayMember = "Name"
              'Set combobox’s datasource to datatable dt
              cboFindCompetitor.DataSource = dt
          End Using 'com
      End Using 'conn
  
      cboFindCompetitor.SelectedIndex = -1
  End Sub
  </code></pre>