Flash Builder 4 List controls trimming spaces from XML node values

Question

I'm trying to migrate my Flex 3 application to Flash builder 4.  One issue that I have is that one of my datasources returns a list of cities and regions.  To get the regions to display in the correct order in Flex 3, a space was added to to their name in the database (ie. "West", "Northwest" are stored in the database as " West" and " Northwest" so that when sorted by the sql query they would appear at the top and gets translated to XML to fill in a list box or combo box in my Flex 3 application.  I have functions that take that selected city or region value from the combo box and queries the database for various performance metrics.  In migrating to Flash Builder 4, I noticed that the spaces in the region names no longer appear in the combo boxes.  When I show the data in a datagrid, the spaces are still there but when populating a combo box or list box, the leading space gets trimmed.  This is an issue since if a user selects the value "West", it doesn't find it in the database since it is listed as " West".  This wasn't an issue in Flex Buider 3.  Is there a work around or parameter that I can set to force the combo box or list box to show the data as-is versus having it trim off the leading spaces for my regions?
Also, a stupid question, in Flex 3, you were able to find the select value of a combo box by using comboBox.text.  What is the equivalent in Flash Builder 4?  Do I need to do comboBox.selectedItem.Region.toString() now or is there a shortcut to pull the text from the combo box?

Answer 1

I think you want this:
private function onLoadPortfolioData(event:ResultEvent):void
    var obj:XMLList = event.result.img as XMLList;
    if (obj.length > 0)
        _imgCollection = new XMLListCollection(obj);
        pictureList.dataProvider = _imgCollection;
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