Peoplecode to get dropdownlist box value and its description

Question

Hi,
I have assigned a value and its description to dropdownlist box. when try to get the value and description in somewhere, i didn't get the description. i got only the value of the current row in a rowset. but i want to fetch the description which i assigned to the dropdownlist for the corresponding value. Is there any way to get the description?

Answer 1

Since it is not a XLAT bound to the field, you cannot use the field class properties.
What is the source of the dropdownlist?
If it comes from a database record, you could fetch the description from the database using the &Field.Value as input.
But this would cause a lot of database roundtrips.
You could store the value and description in a two dimensional component array variable and load this array with the values and descriptions at PostBuild Event.
This will only fires ones during the component build.
Suppose the values are "hardcoded", something like this
/* Create component 2-dim array */
Component array of array of string &DropdownArray;
&DropdownArray = CreateArrayRept("", 0);
&DropdownArray.Push(CreateArray("value1", "descr1");
&DropdownArray.Push(CreateArray("value2", "descr2");
&DropdownArray.Push(CreateArray("value3", "descr3");
After this populate the dropdownlist with values and descriptions from the array.
For &i = 1 To &DropdownArray.Len
  &Field.AddDropDownItem(&DropdownArray[&i][1], &DropdownArray[&i][2]);
End-For;
Whenever you need to fetch the description of the dropdownlist value, first find the value by &Field.Value and then search within the array for the description.
/*Get value from dropdown */
&Value = &Field.Value;
/*Find index for value*/
&Ind = &DropdownArray.Find(&Value);
/*Get description (second index in subarray)*/
&Descr = &DropdownArray [&Ind][2];
I am writing the code without an environment, so typos could exist
Hope this helps.