Combo Boxes
The ComboBox widget offers a list (or tree) of choices in a dropdown menu. If appropriate, it can show extra information about each item, such as text, a picture, a checkbox, or a progress bar. The ComboBox widget usually restricts the user to the available choices, but it can optionally have an Entry, allowing the user to enter arbitrary text if none of the available choices are suitable.
The list is provided via a TreeModel, and columns from this model are added to the ComboBox's view with the ComboBox::pack_start() method. This provides flexibility and compile-time type-safety, but the ComboBoxText class provides a simpler text-based specialization in case that flexibility is not required.
Reference

The model
The model for a ComboBox can be defined and filled exactly as for a TreeView. For instance, you might derive a ComboBox class with one integer and one text column, like so:

ModelColumns()
{ add(m_col_id); add(m_col_name); }

  Gtk::TreeModelColumn<int> m_col_id;
  Gtk::TreeModelColumn<Glib::ustring> m_col_name;
};

ModelColumns m_columns;

After appending rows to this model, you should provide the model to the ComboBox with the set_model() method. Then use the pack_start() or pack_end() methods to specify what columns will be displayed in the ComboBox. As with the TreeView you may either use the default cell renderer by passing the TreeModelColumn to the pack methods, or you may instantiate a specific CellRenderer and specify a particular mapping with either add_attribute() or set_cell_data_func(). Note that these methods are in the CellLayout base class.

The chosen item
To discover what item, if any, the user has chosen from the ComboBox, call ComboBox::get_active(). This returns a TreeModel::iterator that you can dereference to a Row in order to read the values in your columns. For instance, you might read an integer ID value from the model, even though you have chosen only to show the human-readable description in the ComboBox. For instance:

Gtk::TreeModel::iterator iter = m_Combo.get_active();
if(iter)
{
  Gtk::TreeModel::Row row = *iter;

  //Get the data for the selected row, using our knowledge
  //of the tree model:
  int id = row[m_Columns.m_col_id];
  set_something_id_chosen(id); //Your own function.
}
else
  set_nothing_chosen(); //Your own function.

Responding to changes
You might need to react to every change of selection in the ComboBox, for instance to update other widgets. To do so, you should handle the changed signal. For instance:

m_combo.signal_changed().connect( sigc::mem_fun(*this,
      &ExampleWindow::on_combo_changed) );

Full Example

ComboBox
Source Code

Simple Text Example

ComboBoxText
Source Code

ComboBox with an Entry
A ComboBox may contain an Entry widget for entering of arbitrary text, by specifying true for the constructor's has_entry parameter.

The text column
So that the Entry can interact with the drop-down list of choices, you must specify which of your model columns is the text column, with set_entry_text_column(). For instance:

m_combo.set_entry_text_column(m_columns.m_col_name);

When you select a choice from the drop-down menu, the value from this column will be placed in the Entry.

The entry
Because the user may enter arbitrary text, an active model row isn't enough to tell us what text the user has entered. Therefore, you should retrieve the Entry widget with the ComboBox::get_entry() method and call get_text() on that.

Responding to changes
When the user enters arbitrary text, it may not be enough to connect to the changed signal, which is emitted for every typed character. It is not emitted when the user presses the Enter key. Pressing the Enter key or moving the keyboard focus to another widget may signal that the user has finished entering text. To be notified of these events, connect to the Entry's activate and focus_out_event signals, like so

Gtk::Entry* entry = m_Combo.get_entry();
if (entry)
{
  // The Entry shall receive focus-out events.
  entry->add_events(Gdk::FOCUS_CHANGE_MASK);

  // Alternatively you can connect to m_Combo.signal_changed().
  entry->signal_changed().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this,
    &ExampleWindow::on_entry_changed) );

  entry->signal_activate().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this,
    &ExampleWindow::on_entry_activate) );

  entry->signal_focus_out_event().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this,
    &ExampleWindow::on_entry_focus_out_event) );
}

The changed signals of ComboBox and Entry are both emitted for every change. It doesn't matter which one you connect to. But only Entry's focus_out_event signal is useful here.
X events are described in more detail in the X Event signals section in the appendix.

Full Example

ComboBox with Entry
Source Code

Simple Text Example

ComboBoxText with Entry
Source Code