Editable Combobox - user-interface

Question

I have a singleton EmployeeDatabase that contains an ObservableList of employees.
This ObsList populates the contents of an editable combobox.
When a user selects one of the employees from the combo box and hits a button, I want that employee (from the database) to be displayed in a toString() in the console.
The problem is, the editable combobox does not let me select an employee directly. I'm supposed to use a StringConverter to turn that String into an Employee.
But the Employee already exists in the singleton database! Do I have to search for them in the database? Or is there an easier way to get the Employee as if the combobox weren't editable, and all I would have to do is cmbx.getSelectionModel().getSelectedItem()?

Answer 1

You don't need to go back to the database, since you already have an ObservableList which contains the Employees that are in there. You should be able to do something like:
final ComboBox<Employee> employeeCombo = new ComboBox<>();
employeeCombo.setItems(EmployeeDatabase.getInstance().getEmployees());
employeeCombo.setConverter(new StringConverter<Employee>() {
#Override
public Employee fromString(String string) {
for (Employee employee : employeeCombo.getItems()) {
if (string.equals(employee.getName())) { // may need more logic...
return employee ;
}
}
Employee employee = new Employee(string);
// if things are set up correctly, this call should both update the database
// and the observable list to which the combo box points
EmployeeDatabase.getInstance().add(employee);
return employee ;
}
#Override
public String toString(Employee employee) {
return employee == null : null ? employee.getName();
}
});
employeeCombo.setEditable(true);