free autocomplete combo code

[kleinma]

Ok I wasnt able to find it so i gave up the search and coded it myself. Now as far as I can tell it works fine... but I would like to have some of you guys check it out and make any suggestions on potential problems or bad coding

Now what I did was create a class library for this so I could compile it and add it to my windows app, what I use the autocomplete combo is USUALLY for the state field in an address entry, but I use it for pretty much every combo that you dont want the user to enter their own value.

When I inherited the combobox in my class it automatically added 2 protected subs ("Refresh Item" <- no space but spells $hit when together and VBForums doesnt like that, and "SetItemsCore"). I am not sure why (maybe someone can tell me) so I just passed them up to the base class.

NOTE: while the code could be altered to do differently, this code is LIMIT TO LIST only, which means the user cant put in their own text if its not in the drop down list (perfect for a state combo for example)

Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public Class AutoCompleteCombo
    Inherits ComboBox
 
    'underscore added in sub name to bypass VBForum filter
    Protected Overrides Sub Refresh_Item(ByVal index As Integer)
        MyBase.Refresh_Item(index)
    End Sub
 
    Protected Overrides Sub SetItemsCore(ByVal items As System.Collections.IList)
        MyBase.SetItemsCore(items)
    End Sub
 
    Public Shadows Sub KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles MyBase.KeyPress
        Dim intIndex As Integer
        Dim strEntry As String
 
        If Char.IsControl(e.KeyChar) Then
            If MyBase.SelectionStart <= 1 Then
                MyBase.Text = String.Empty
                MyBase.SelectedIndex = -1
                e.Handled = True
                Exit Sub
            End If
            If MyBase.SelectionLength = 0 Then
                strEntry = MyBase.Text.Substring(0, MyBase.Text.Length - 1)
            Else
                strEntry = MyBase.Text.Substring(0, MyBase.SelectionStart - 1)
            End If
        ElseIf (Not Char.IsLetterOrDigit(e.KeyChar)) And (Not Char.IsWhiteSpace(e.KeyChar)) Then  '< 32 Or KeyAscii > 127 Then
            Exit Sub
        Else
            If MyBase.SelectionLength = 0 Then
                strEntry = UCase(MyBase.Text & e.KeyChar)
            Else
                strEntry = MyBase.Text.Substring(0, MyBase.SelectionStart) & e.KeyChar
            End If
        End If
 
        intIndex = MyBase.FindString(strEntry)
 
        If intIndex <> -1 Then
            MyBase.SelectedIndex = intIndex
            MyBase.SelectionStart = strEntry.Length
            MyBase.SelectionLength = MyBase.Text.Length - MyBase.SelectionStart
        End If
        e.Handled = True
        Exit Sub
    End Sub
End Class

hope it helps someone if they have been looking for something like this

[salvelinus]

That's great. Did you try the code in the link I posted on your original post?

[kleinma]

yeah but it was kind of cumbersome

it didnt limit to list, and it seemed like it was more work than needed because i found an article on the MSKB that shows how to do the same thing, but it looks a lot simpler. Neither of them had the full functionality i was looking for to limit to list so thats why i coded my own

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=vbNET

[spoiledkid]

http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/au...e_combobox.asp

[Andy]

if anyone's interested, to go along with this, i wrote a custom combobox that will list the states automatically.

Public Class StateComboBox
    Inherits ComboBox
 
#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
 
    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()
 
        'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
        InitializeComponent()
 
        'Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call
 
    End Sub
 
    'UserControl1 overrides dispose to clean up the component list.
    Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
        If disposing Then
            If Not (components Is Nothing) Then
                components.Dispose()
            End If
        End If
        MyBase.Dispose(disposing)
    End Sub
 
    'Required by the Windows Form Designer
    Private components As System.ComponentModel.IContainer
 
    'NOTE: The following procedure is required by the Windows Form Designer
    'It can be modified using the Windows Form Designer.  
    'Do not modify it using the code editor.
    <System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> Private Sub InitializeComponent()
        components = New System.ComponentModel.Container
    End Sub
 
#End Region
 
    Private EnterColor As Color = Color.LightYellow
    Private LeaveColor As Color = SystemColors.Window
 
    Property EnterFocusColor() As Color
        Get
            Return EnterColor
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Color)
            EnterColor = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Property LeaveFocusColor() As Color
        Get
            Return LeaveColor
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Color)
            LeaveColor = Value
        End Set
    End Property
 
 
    Private Sub StateComboBox_Enter(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Enter
        Me.BackColor = EnterFocusColor
    End Sub
    Private Sub StateComboBox_Leave(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Leave
        Me.BackColor = LeaveFocusColor
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub StateComboBox_DropDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.DropDown
        'This checks first if the collection has been populated already.
        If Me.Items.Contains("Alabama") Then
            Exit Sub
        End If
 
        Dim list As String = "Alabama|Alaska|Arizona|Arkansas|California|Colorado|Connecticut|Delaware|District of Columbia|" & _
                                                    "Florida|Georgia|Hawaii|Idaho|Illinois|Indiana|Iowa|Kansas|Kentucky|Louisiana|Maine|Maryland|" & _
                                                    "Massachusetts|Michigan|Minnesota|Mississippi|Missouri|Montana|Nebraska|Nevada|New Hampshire|" & _
                                                    "New Jersey|New Mexico|New York|North Carolina|North Dakota|Ohio|Oklahoma|Oregon|Pennsylvania|" & _
                                                    "Rhode Island|South Carolina|South Dakota|Tennessee|Texas|Utah|Vermont|Virginia|Washington|West Virginia|Wisconsin|Wyoming"
 
        Dim states As String()
        states = list.Split("|"c)
 
        For Each s As String In states
            Me.Items.Add(s)
        Next s
    End Sub
End Class

putting these together would be awesome.

[Andy]

One other thing, how do you get the nice little icon that's already used by the standard combobox? when I compile the above code, I get a cogwheel. I get that for ALL my custom controls. I would LIKE to have a custom icon to go along with all these controls I've made up.

[nemaroller]

Specify that with the <ToolBoxBitMap> tag.....

[kleinma]

Originally posted by spoiledkid
http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/au...e_combobox.asp

this doesnt limit to list, and all they did for the autocomplete routine is use the same code as the MSKB article I linked above

[kleinma]

Andy, I put your state code in... but instead of adding it in to my code, I created a second class in the project and had it inherit from my original class... so it has all the functionality plus the states... that way you can use the autocomplete combo for something other than states, and the autocompletestatecombo for when you need it specifically for states..

Option Explicit On 
Option Strict On
 
Public Class AutoCompleteStateCombo
    Inherits AutoCompleteCombo
 
    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()
        Dim strStateString As String = "Alabama|Alaska|Arizona|Arkansas|California|Colorado|Connecticut|Delaware|District of Columbia|" & _
                                                    "Florida|Georgia|Hawaii|Idaho|Illinois|Indiana|Iowa|Kansas|Kentucky|Louisiana|Maine|Maryland|" & _
                                                    "Massachusetts|Michigan|Minnesota|Mississippi|Missouri|Montana|Nebraska|Nevada|New Hampshire|" & _
                                                    "New Jersey|New Mexico|New York|North Carolina|North Dakota|Ohio|Oklahoma|Oregon|Pennsylvania|" & _
                                                    "Rhode Island|South Carolina|South Dakota|Tennessee|Texas|Utah|Vermont|Virginia|Washington|West Virginia|Wisconsin|Wyoming"
 
        Dim States() As String = strStateString.Split("|"c)
 
        MyBase.Items.AddRange(States)
 
    End Sub
 
 
End Class

[kleinma]

I added 2 new features to the state combo class, 1 is a readonly property to get the 2 letter abbreviation for the state currently selected, and the other is a method you can use to get the state abbreviation by passing in a state name

here is the complete code for the state combo class

Option Explicit On 
Option Strict On
 
Public Class AutoCompleteStateCombo
    Inherits AutoCompleteCombo
 
    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()
        Dim strStateString As String = "Alabama|Alaska|Arizona|Arkansas|California|Colorado|Connecticut|Delaware|District of Columbia|" & _
                                                    "Florida|Georgia|Hawaii|Idaho|Illinois|Indiana|Iowa|Kansas|Kentucky|Louisiana|Maine|Maryland|" & _
                                                    "Massachusetts|Michigan|Minnesota|Mississippi|Missouri|Montana|Nebraska|Nevada|New Hampshire|" & _
                                                    "New Jersey|New Mexico|New York|North Carolina|North Dakota|Ohio|Oklahoma|Oregon|Pennsylvania|" & _
                                                    "Rhode Island|South Carolina|South Dakota|Tennessee|Texas|Utah|Vermont|Virginia|Washington|West Virginia|Wisconsin|Wyoming"
 
        Dim States() As String = strStateString.Split("|"c)
 
        MyBase.Items.AddRange(States)
 
    End Sub
    Public ReadOnly Property StateAbbr() As String
        Get
            Select Case Me.Text.ToUpper
                Case "Alabama" : StateAbbr = "AL"
                Case "Alaska" : StateAbbr = "AK"
                Case "Arizona" : StateAbbr = "AZ"
                Case "Arkansas" : StateAbbr = "AR"
                Case "California" : StateAbbr = "CA"
                Case "Colorado" : StateAbbr = "CO"
                Case "Connecticut" : StateAbbr = "CT"
                Case "Delaware" : StateAbbr = "DE"
                Case "District of Columbia" : StateAbbr = "DC"
                Case "Florida" : StateAbbr = "FL"
                Case "Georgia" : StateAbbr = "GA"
                Case "Hawaii" : StateAbbr = "HI"
                Case "Idaho" : StateAbbr = "ID"
                Case "Illinois" : StateAbbr = "IL"
                Case "Indiana" : StateAbbr = "IN"
                Case "Iowa" : StateAbbr = "IA"
                Case "Kansas" : StateAbbr = "KS"
                Case "Kentucky" : StateAbbr = "KY"
                Case "Louisiana" : StateAbbr = "LA"
                Case "Maine" : StateAbbr = "ME"
                Case "Maryland" : StateAbbr = "MD"
                Case "Massachusetts" : StateAbbr = "MA"
                Case "Michigan" : StateAbbr = "MI"
                Case "Minnesota" : StateAbbr = "MN"
                Case "Mississippi" : StateAbbr = "MS"
                Case "Missouri" : StateAbbr = "MO"
                Case "Montana" : StateAbbr = "MT"
                Case "Nebraska" : StateAbbr = "NE"
                Case "Nevada" : StateAbbr = "NV"
                Case "New Hampshire" : StateAbbr = "NH"
                Case "New Jersey" : StateAbbr = "NJ"
                Case "New Mexico" : StateAbbr = "NM"
                Case "New York" : StateAbbr = "NY"
                Case "None/Other" : StateAbbr = "XX"
                Case "North Carolina" : StateAbbr = "NC"
                Case "North Dakota" : StateAbbr = "ND"
                Case "Ohio" : StateAbbr = "OH"
                Case "Oklahoma" : StateAbbr = "OK"
                Case "Oregon" : StateAbbr = "OR"
                Case "Pennsylvania" : StateAbbr = "PA"
                Case "Rhode Island" : StateAbbr = "RI"
                Case "South Carolina" : StateAbbr = "SC"
                Case "South Dakota" : StateAbbr = "SD"
                Case "Tennessee" : StateAbbr = "TN"
                Case "Texas" : StateAbbr = "TX"
                Case "Utah" : StateAbbr = "UT"
                Case "Vermont" : StateAbbr = "VT"
                Case "Virginia" : StateAbbr = "VA"
                Case "Washington" : StateAbbr = "WA"
                Case "West Virginia" : StateAbbr = "WV"
                Case "Wisconsin" : StateAbbr = "WI"
                Case "Wyoming" : StateAbbr = "WY"
                Case Else : StateAbbr = String.Empty
            End Select
        End Get
    End Property
 
    Public Function GetNameFromAbbr(ByVal strAbbr As String) As String
        Select Case strAbbr.ToUpper
            Case "AL" : Return "Alabama"
            Case "AK" : Return "Alaska"
            Case "AZ" : Return "Arizona"
            Case "AR" : Return "Arkansas"
            Case "CA" : Return "California"
            Case "CO" : Return "Colorado"
            Case "CT" : Return "Connecticut"
            Case "DE" : Return "Delaware"
            Case "DC" : Return "District of Columbia"
            Case "FL" : Return "Florida"
            Case "GA" : Return "Georgia"
            Case "HI" : Return "Hawaii"
            Case "ID" : Return "Idaho"
            Case "IL" : Return "Illinois"
            Case "IN" : Return "Indiana"
            Case "IA" : Return "Iowa"
            Case "KS" : Return "Kansas"
            Case "KY" : Return "Kentucky"
            Case "LA" : Return "Louisiana"
            Case "ME" : Return "Maine"
            Case "MD" : Return "Maryland"
            Case "MA" : Return "Massachusetts"
            Case "MI" : Return "Michigan"
            Case "MN" : Return "Minnesota"
            Case "MS" : Return "Mississippi"
            Case "MO" : Return "Missouri"
            Case "MT" : Return "Montana"
            Case "NE" : Return "Nebraska"
            Case "NV" : Return "Nevada"
            Case "NH" : Return "New Hampshire"
            Case "NJ" : Return "New Jersey"
            Case "NM" : Return "New Mexico"
            Case "NY" : Return "New York"
            Case "XX" : Return "None/Other"
            Case "NC" : Return "North Carolina"
            Case "ND" : Return "North Dakota"
            Case "OH" : Return "Ohio"
            Case "OK" : Return "Oklahoma"
            Case "OR" : Return "Oregon"
            Case "PA" : Return "Pennsylvania"
            Case "RI" : Return "Rhode Island"
            Case "SC" : Return "South Carolina"
            Case "SD" : Return "South Dakota"
            Case "TN" : Return "Tennessee"
            Case "TX" : Return "Texas"
            Case "UT" : Return "Utah"
            Case "VT" : Return "Vermont"
            Case "VA" : Return "Virginia"
            Case "WA" : Return "Washington"
            Case "WV" : Return "West Virginia"
            Case "WI" : Return "Wisconsin"
            Case "WY" : Return "Wyoming"
            Case Else : Return String.Empty
        End Select
    End Function
End Class

[Andy]

nice!!!!!



That's what I'm talking about fellas, developer's helping developers

[kleinma]

I am going to make a whole set of controls that are used in standard business applications like phone number textboxes, email textboxes, date textboxes, etc... to go along with the autocomplete state combo and autocomplete combo

then once I am done I will post all the source... these are the kinds of controls I use all the time, but I used to copy code from project to project in VB6 because you couldnt simply inherit and override events... and who says .net isnt all its cracked up to be

[Andy]

I've got a PhoneMaskBox I created too. as a matter of fact, I'll zip up the 3 i have complete in a second and post them i'd like to see what ideas or improvements you have for these:

Phone mask: simply formats a phone number and accepts only numbers. it will format 7 or 10 digits and reject anything else. it also has an Enter and Leave color properties

myLabel: nothing special except it is already sized to 100 x 23 (the same as a text box).

myTextBox: simply has an Enter and Leave color properties

[Andy]

I altered the code for your AutoCompleteStateBox just a tad. You did what I did in the begining. If you add items in the sub New(), it will add those each time you add a box to your form. I noticed that when I had 10 Alabamas and 10 Wyomings lol! I ended up putting that in the dropDown event and it checks for the name alabama.

I also took out the Designer Generated Code like you did (except for the label control) I hope they still function.. I'd like some feedback on what i have so I can improve on them.