How to save a List<string> on Settings.Default?

I have a ListBox on my Form, I want to save it and load the values when I start the application again.

How can I save a list on PrjName.Properties.Settings.Default?

Solution 1:

No problem at all! Create a new setting, e.g. "MyListOfStrings", type doesn't matter.

then open settings file in a xml editor

your file will look like this:

now change it as shown below and save it

well, that's all, now it will look like that:

and in code:

Solution 2:

I found out that I can't directly save a List<string> on the application settings, but I saw that I can save a StringCollection.

And here I found out that it's very simple to convert from a StringCollection to a List<string>

var list = stringCollection.Cast<string>().ToList();

Solution 3:

I know this is an older question, but I feel it is noteworthy to add that you can create a custom class that inherits whatever kind of list you want to use and it makes it very simple to set. For example, if you want a List<CustomData>, you could create the class like this:

using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace YourNamespace
{
    public class CustomCollection : List<CustomData>
    {
    }
}

then open the settings like @pr0gg3r suggested and add this in the <Settings> section:

    <Setting Name="SomeSetting" Type="YourNamespace.CustomCollection" Scope="User">
      <Value Profile="(Default)" />
    </Setting>

You won't be able to use the settings designer, unless it's a basic data type like string or int. If you are using a custom data type, you'll have to initialize it on startup before using it, but I find it still looks more elegant than trying to directly use a list in the settings.