check for duplicate items in combobox

[szlamany]

but why ... i've used DISTINCT many times before and i never noted any issue about that ... then i'm wondering why you recommend not using of DISTINCT?

DISTINCT and GROUP BY have a place in SQL - that's for sure.

But I've seen too many people develop a poor join - resulting in "phantom" duplicate rows and then using DISTINCT to get rid of them.

In the past 3 years we have developed nearly 1000 STORED PROCEDURES and I cannot remember the time we used SELECT DISTINCT.

Prior to MS SQL SERVER 2000, SELECT DISTINCT would build the resultset and then apply the DISTINCT upon it - GROUP BY was better. Now they are the same.

And as you can see from the reply - DISTINCT isn't going to work in this case either.

As for the DUPLICATE issue in the COMBO box - search around the FORUM, I've seen API tricks on COMBOBOXES that get rid of duplicates...

[digita]

As for the DUPLICATE issue in the COMBO box - search around the FORUM, I've seen API tricks on COMBOBOXES that get rid of duplicates...

I searched the forums, but i can't find it. what keyword should i use?

[szlamany]

I searched the forums, but i can't find it. what keyword should i use?

It was tough to find - but here's a link:

Find a string in a combobox with API

[digita]

what does it do, because i don't inderstand it, and how do i use it?

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                                                                        ByVal wMsg As Long, _
                                                                        ByVal wParam As Long, _
                                                                        lParam As Any) _
                                                                        As Long
 
Private Const CB_ERR = (-1)
Private Const CB_FINDSTRING = &H14C
Private Const CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT = &H158
 
Private Function FindItemByString(cmb As ComboBox, ByVal SearchFor As String, Optional FindExact As Boolean = False) As Integer
    FindItemByString = CInt(SendMessage(cmb.hwnd, IIf(FindExact, CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT, CB_FINDSTRING), _
                            CB_ERR, ByVal SearchFor))
End Function

[RobDog888]

Hey, that looks very simlar to my code I posted a long time ago.

What it does is use the sendmessage api to find in the passed combo box (depending on the exact or
like parameter being passed) a item with the same (exact or partial matching) combo item text. Then if it
finds it it will return the index integer of the found item.

'Usage for exact match:
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Combo1.ListIndex = FindItemByString(Combo1, Combo1.Text, True)
End Sub

If its not found then the function returns a -1 which will not give the combo an error but rather a no
selection depending on the Style of the combo box.

HTH