Vb.net how can I set Search level as user input string - vb.net

Question

Intro... I've got a counter in my project that counts files in specified paths. Now all this depends on the users input as concerned would go into settings and set which extensions (tbExt1.text) that should be searched for as well as path (tbpath.text). The paths are listed in lbchannel1 listbox. Now this wont matter too much to my question, but I filled it in so my example below is more understandable.
Here comes the question: The users should be able to address if its going to count TopLevelOnly (FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly) or TopAndSub (FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories).
So I made a combobox that they can select from either of those two options. When they select one of them, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly or FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories will become the text in a textbox tbTopOrSub1.text
That brings me to the next part. Instead of for example FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories in my counter, I now added tbTopOrSub1.text as I hoped this would work the same way, but now be a user depended option. Have a look:
Dim TopOrSub1 As String
TopOrSub1 = tbTopOrSub1.Text
Dim fileTotal As Integer
For Each item As String In lbChannel1.Items
fileTotal += My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(item.ToString, TopOrSub1, (tbExt1.Text)).Count
Next
I thought this would work like a charm, but it doesn't seem to work. I get this error The converting from string FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLev to type Integer is not valid (could be bad translation since the error was in Norwegian) and I notice how it sais TopLev. I suppose its too long? I can't figure out how to get around this.

Answer 1

First of all put Option Strict On for your VB project. This helps alot to avoid runtime errors.
The error occurs since you try to convert a string into an enumeration (=integer).
The good thing about comboboxes is that they have a DataSource property which can hold a collection of objects of any type. Additionally they have the following Properties:
DisplayMember: Name of a (public) property of the object set
in DataSource. The value of it will be displayed in the UI as "friendly" text.
ValueMember: Name of a property of the object set in DataSource. This value will not be shown in UI but you can accesss it in your code.
See my below exmaple how to use all these:
The object which holds the display text (Name) and the Value for your File Search Option:
Class FileSearchOption
Public Property Name As String
Public Property Value As FileIO.SearchOption
End Class
Fill your combobox and set its DataSource, DisplayMember and ValueMember:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim searchOptions As New List(Of FileSearchOption)
searchOptions.Add(New FileSearchOption() With {.Name = "TopLevelOnly", .Value = FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly})
searchOptions.Add(New FileSearchOption() With {.Name = "TopAndSub", .Value = FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories})
ComboBox1.DataSource = searchOptions
ComboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name"
ComboBox1.ValueMember = "Value"
End Sub
Handle the action when the user has chosen a search option. Remark that it is necessary to DirectCast the SelectedValue since it is of type Object.
Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
Dim fileTotal As Integer
For Each item As String In {"G:\"}
fileTotal += My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(item.ToString, DirectCast(ComboBox1.SelectedValue, FileIO.SearchOption), (tbExt1.Text)).Count
Next
End Sub