I want to pass a value in a combo box as a param to a SQL statement. The Winforms combobox gives me several options for retrieving the value, namely SelectedItem, SelectedText, and SelectedValue. Which one is best/safest to use in this scenario?
SelectedValue is probably the best one to use
SelectedText will give you the selected text of the editable portion, Selected Item will return you the object and selected index will return you the index. Usually for applications SelectedValue is extracted and used.
Check out Combobox from MSDN
SelectedIndex Gets or sets the index specifying the currently selected item. (Overrides ListControl.SelectedIndex.)
SelectedItem Gets or sets currently selected item in the ComboBox.
SelectedText Gets or sets the text that is selected in the editable portion of a ComboBox.
SelectedValue Gets or sets the value of the member property specified by the ValueMember property. (Inherited from ListControl.)