TComboBox and lack of item index on Object Inspector

Hi all...

Ok, here's the question...I know radio buttons automatically have a feature (Item Index) that can be set to 0 (instead of -1) to automatically have the first item pre-selected when the program runs. I noticed that the TComboBox has no Item Index displayed on the Object Inspector to do the same. (Borland 5.0)

My program is already written, I just need some help on either a code setting the item index to the first item for the drop down Combo Box, or a code checking to make sure that the user selected one of the TStrings before computing, or ANY advice that anyone has. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

Christina

Set the ComboBox style to csDropDownList. This makes the component behave as a simple drop down list, rather than a combination of an edit box & drop down list. Set the list items you want using the 'Items' property.

There is no design time property to pre-select the list item. However, you can do it at run-time when your form is created with:

ComboBox1->ItemIndex = 1;

Works beautifully...had to set ItemIndex=0 to get the first item to show, not the second. Thanks for the help!! It was along the lines of what I was thinking, just wanted a second opinion.

Christina