Programming Forums > Application Development > Visual Basic

chepfaust · Mar 8th, 2005, 7:54 PM

ok here's the scenario:

a combobox has a set list of entries. if a user comes along and starts typing something into the text field of the combobox, is there any simple way to fill in the rest of the box with something that already exists in the combobox?

example:

the contents of the combobox are <bacala, bacon, bananas, brew>. the user types "baca" and an "la" should get appended to the current text, but the "la" should be highlighted so that if bacala is not the word the user wants, they can continue to type straight over it. the user types "ban" and "anas" gets appended. if the user types "bac" then nothing gets appended because there are multiple possibilities.

i'm not asking for someone to code such a routine and do the work for me, rather, i'm just asking if there's a combobox flag or a vb control or something i'm overlooking that would enable such a function

thanks

Rory · Mar 10th, 2005, 3:28 PM

This'll do paths and URLs, but if you want something different, you'll just have to code it as there is no built-in function to do the windows auto-complete on anything else.
Add a text box to a form and put this in it

(Toggle Plain Text)

Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_OFF = &H80000000
Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_ON = &H40000000
Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_OFF = &H20000000
Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_ON = &H10000000
Private Const SHACF_DEFAULT = &H0
Private Const SHACF_FILESYSTEM = &H1
Private Const SHACF_URLHISTORY = &H2
Private Const SHACF_URLMRU = &H4
Private Const SHACF_USETAB = &H8
Private Const SHACF_URLALL = (SHACF_URLHISTORY Or SHACF_URLMRU)
Private Declare Sub SHAutoComplete Lib "shlwapi.dll" (ByVal hwndEdit As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long)
Private Sub Form_Load()
    SHAutoComplete Text1.hWnd, SHACF_DEFAULT
End Sub

chepfaust · Mar 10th, 2005, 7:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rory

This'll do paths and URLs, but if you want something different, you'll just have to code it as there is no built-in function to do the windows auto-complete on anything else.

hmm paths and urls are not what i had in mind so i guess i'll have to code it, but thanks for answering my question.

Rory · Mar 14th, 2005, 3:19 PM

Ok No Problem. You should be able to find something ready made and stable on PSC (planetsourcecode.com).

chepfaust · Mar 30th, 2005, 10:58 PM

(Toggle Plain Text)

Dim i As Integer
Dim OriginalTextLength As Integer
If KeyCode = vbKeyBack Or KeyCode = vbKeyDelete Or KeyCode = vbKeyShift Or _
    KeyCode = vbKeyHome Or KeyCode = vbKeySpace Or txtKw(Index).Text = "" Then Exit Sub
For i = 0 To lsKw(Index).ListCount - 1
    If LCase(txtKw(Index).Text) = LCase(Left(lsKw(Index).List(i), Len(txtKw(Index).Text))) Then
        OriginalTextLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text)
        txtKw(Index).Text = lsKw(Index).List(i)
        txtKw(Index).SelStart = OriginalTextLength
        txtKw(Index).SelLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text) - OriginalTextLength
        Exit For
    End If
Next i

ok i hackneyed this off some random site i came across and modified it to suit my own purposes.

i'm having a slight problem with it. it works great for the most part, but if the user types too fast then it makes a huge textual mess.

example: "praga khan" "pringles" "proton" are three words in a listbox. if i start typing "programming" at my normal speed, the routine will assume i'm typing "proton" and will append and highlight "ton" so i can type over it if necessary. except i'm typing faster than the routine can highlight the new suggestion, so i would end up with something like "protongramming."

aside from not typing so fast, what is an efficient way that i can put in a delay or something to prevent it from coming up with a suggestion so quickly?

Rory · Apr 2nd, 2005, 10:07 PM

It wouldn't take much modification to make it display the autocomplete in a tooltip, or a floating label just below the textbox like in Word. Then if the user types to quickly, the problem wouldn't happen. To actually autocomplete, the user would press enter, i.e. you'd just add something like If KeyCode = vbKeyReturn then txtThisBox.Text = lblTooltip.Caption
Similarly you could write a textbox usercontrol that achieved the same effect as the original (displaying the new text as a selection) but double buffering the text so that the garbling wouldn't occur.

Mar 8th, 2005, 7:54 PM	#1
chepfaust Programmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 62 Rep Power: 4	how to make an autocompleting combobox? ok here's the scenario: a combobox has a set list of entries. if a user comes along and starts typing something into the text field of the combobox, is there any simple way to fill in the rest of the box with something that already exists in the combobox? example: the contents of the combobox are <bacala, bacon, bananas, brew>. the user types "baca" and an "la" should get appended to the current text, but the "la" should be highlighted so that if bacala is not the word the user wants, they can continue to type straight over it. the user types "ban" and "anas" gets appended. if the user types "bac" then nothing gets appended because there are multiple possibilities. i'm not asking for someone to code such a routine and do the work for me, rather, i'm just asking if there's a combobox flag or a vb control or something i'm overlooking that would enable such a function thanks

Mar 10th, 2005, 3:28 PM	#2
Rory Expert Programmer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: London Posts: 542 Rep Power: 4	This'll do paths and URLs, but if you want something different, you'll just have to code it as there is no built-in function to do the windows auto-complete on anything else. Add a text box to a form and put this in it (Toggle Plain Text) Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_OFF = &H80000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_ON = &H40000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_OFF = &H20000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_ON = &H10000000 Private Const SHACF_DEFAULT = &H0 Private Const SHACF_FILESYSTEM = &H1 Private Const SHACF_URLHISTORY = &H2 Private Const SHACF_URLMRU = &H4 Private Const SHACF_USETAB = &H8 Private Const SHACF_URLALL = (SHACF_URLHISTORY Or SHACF_URLMRU) Private Declare Sub SHAutoComplete Lib "shlwapi.dll" (ByVal hwndEdit As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) Private Sub Form_Load() SHAutoComplete Text1.hWnd, SHACF_DEFAULT End Sub Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_OFF = &H80000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOAPPEND_FORCE_ON = &H40000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_OFF = &H20000000 Private Const SHACF_AUTOSUGGEST_FORCE_ON = &H10000000 Private Const SHACF_DEFAULT = &H0 Private Const SHACF_FILESYSTEM = &H1 Private Const SHACF_URLHISTORY = &H2 Private Const SHACF_URLMRU = &H4 Private Const SHACF_USETAB = &H8 Private Const SHACF_URLALL = (SHACF_URLHISTORY Or SHACF_URLMRU) Private Declare Sub SHAutoComplete Lib "shlwapi.dll" (ByVal hwndEdit As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) Private Sub Form_Load() SHAutoComplete Text1.hWnd, SHACF_DEFAULT End Sub

Mar 30th, 2005, 10:58 PM	#5
chepfaust Programmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 62 Rep Power: 4	(Toggle Plain Text) Dim i As Integer Dim OriginalTextLength As Integer If KeyCode = vbKeyBack Or KeyCode = vbKeyDelete Or KeyCode = vbKeyShift Or _ KeyCode = vbKeyHome Or KeyCode = vbKeySpace Or txtKw(Index).Text = "" Then Exit Sub For i = 0 To lsKw(Index).ListCount - 1 If LCase(txtKw(Index).Text) = LCase(Left(lsKw(Index).List(i), Len(txtKw(Index).Text))) Then OriginalTextLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text) txtKw(Index).Text = lsKw(Index).List(i) txtKw(Index).SelStart = OriginalTextLength txtKw(Index).SelLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text) - OriginalTextLength Exit For End If Next i Dim i As Integer Dim OriginalTextLength As Integer If KeyCode = vbKeyBack Or KeyCode = vbKeyDelete Or KeyCode = vbKeyShift Or _ KeyCode = vbKeyHome Or KeyCode = vbKeySpace Or txtKw(Index).Text = "" Then Exit Sub For i = 0 To lsKw(Index).ListCount - 1 If LCase(txtKw(Index).Text) = LCase(Left(lsKw(Index).List(i), Len(txtKw(Index).Text))) Then OriginalTextLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text) txtKw(Index).Text = lsKw(Index).List(i) txtKw(Index).SelStart = OriginalTextLength txtKw(Index).SelLength = Len(txtKw(Index).Text) - OriginalTextLength Exit For End If Next i ok i hackneyed this off some random site i came across and modified it to suit my own purposes. i'm having a slight problem with it. it works great for the most part, but if the user types too fast then it makes a huge textual mess. example: "praga khan" "pringles" "proton" are three words in a listbox. if i start typing "programming" at my normal speed, the routine will assume i'm typing "proton" and will append and highlight "ton" so i can type over it if necessary. except i'm typing faster than the routine can highlight the new suggestion, so i would end up with something like "protongramming." aside from not typing so fast, what is an efficient way that i can put in a delay or something to prevent it from coming up with a suggestion so quickly?

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Mar 14th, 2005, 3:19 PM	#4
Rory Expert Programmer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: London Posts: 542 Rep Power: 4	Ok No Problem. You should be able to find something ready made and stable on PSC (planetsourcecode.com).

Apr 2nd, 2005, 10:07 PM	#6
Rory Expert Programmer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: London Posts: 542 Rep Power: 4	It wouldn't take much modification to make it display the autocomplete in a tooltip, or a floating label just below the textbox like in Word. Then if the user types to quickly, the problem wouldn't happen. To actually autocomplete, the user would press enter, i.e. you'd just add something like If KeyCode = vbKeyReturn then txtThisBox.Text = lblTooltip.Caption Similarly you could write a textbox usercontrol that achieved the same effect as the original (displaying the new text as a selection) but double buffering the text so that the garbling wouldn't occur.

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Programming Forums > Application Development > Visual Basic

how to make an autocompleting combobox?