Inputfield Value into Variable

Question

I have a picklist field. When a user select an Account I would like to store it in a variable (Account_Name). How can this be done?

This is what I have:

 <apex:pageBlockSection title="Account Selection">
    <apex:inputField value="{!Acct.Accounts__c}"/>    
 </apex:pageblocksection>

//apex class

 public String Account_Name_v{get;set;}

Answer 1

You can only use <apex:inputField> tags with fields on proper SObjects. When you want to save information to a controller member variable instead you must use one of the more specific alternatives. You can create a picklist of available values and then write it back to your member variable by specifying it as the value of the <apex:selectList> tag.

<apex:pageBlockSection title="Account Selection">
    <apex:selectList value="{!Account_Name_v}">
        <apex:selectOptions value="{!options}"/>
    </apex:selectList>
</apex:pageBlockSection>

Since this is in a page block section you're probably after standard formatting, in which case you'll want to wrap this input element inside an <apex:pageBlockSectionItem> tag along with a label like so:

<apex:pageBlockSection title="Account Selection">
    <apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
        <apex:outputLabel for="acctName"/>
        <apex:selectList value="{!Account_Name_v}" id="acctName"
            <apex:selectOptions value="{!options}"/>
        </apex:selectList>
    </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
</apex:pageBlockSection>

Controller

public List<SelectOption> GetOptions()
{
    // You could populate this using a query for accounts
    List<SelectOption> options = new List<SelectOption>
    {
        new SelectOption('acct1', 'Account One'),
        new SelectOption('acct2', 'Account Two'),
        new SelectOption('acct3', 'Account Three')
    };

    return options;
}