Userform combobox: best match on partially typed content?

[ker_01]

I've added a combobox to my userform. Exact match is required.

When I begin typing, if there is one or more exact match, it will pre-fill
the combobox text with the first possible exact match. Once I am close to the
target selection, I can just click the drop-down arrow and select my target
item.

However, if I mis-type or am a letter off of a valid selection, when I click
the down arrow, instead of being at the last acceptable match, it puts me
back at the top of the list.

In this particular case, the combobox may have several thousand entries, and
the spelling of some items are not intuitive. Is there any way to force the
combobox to stay at the last found match? For example, to programmatically
capture the last valid match (which the combobox has somewhere, because it is
pre-populating it), and then use that value to force the combobox location
even if the currently typed text is not a valid match for anything on the
list?

For example, if the desired match is "G425 p2 Electric" and another item is
"G425 e Electric" then I get a match up through typing "G425 ". If I stop
there and hit the combobox dropdown, I'll see my match in the list near the
exact match I'm on. However, if I type "G425 p El" because I didn't know
there was a "2" on this item, it plops me back at the very beginning of the
list, instead of still being in the part of the list where I could easily
find the target item.

So, I'm looking for how to capture the valid match item ID (each time a
match is made), and how to force the combobox to go to that location when the
dropdown is selected, even if the current text is not an exact match.

Thanks!
Keith

 

[JLGWhiz]

You would have to build an error trap into the code that is controlling the
match up, if you are using code to do the match. Without seeing what code
is being used, it is difficult to offer any specific coding suggestions.

 

[Harald Staff]

Hi

Set its Style property to 2 - List, and it will hopefully behave as desired.

HTH. Best wishes Harald

 

[ker_01]

Wow, that did exactly what I asked for! Unfortunately, it also showed me that
I wasn't asking quite the right question (or perhaps, I'm just too picky).

It now stays at the proper part of the list, even when the typing no longer
matches an entry. Unfortunately, the typing area only shows the best match,
not what is being typed, which makes it harder to use- if I type a partial
title, then hit the backspace once, the list match goes back to the top of
the list, but behind the scenes it does not appear to have cleared the rest
of the typed entry. I guess what I was hoping for was to have the main entry
area act like the style 0= fmstyledropdowncombo, but have the actual dropdown
list act like it does in your suggestion, using style 2= fmstyledropdownlist.
I guess I can't have the best of both worlds, without getting into some
harder core programming

JLG- thank you for your response to the thread as well. I was just trying to
wrangle the existing behavior of the combobox, I haven't actually programmed
a replacement for it yet- so I don't have any code. I was thinking that
snagging the activities associated with the combobox (if they are
exposed/accessible to VBA) would have been easier than trying to create a
replacement combobox from scratch.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[Harald Staff]

Hi again Keith

You may want to test an approach like this one too:
http://www.dicks-blog.com/archives/2005/02/16/limit-a-listbox/
http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2005/02/17/limit-a-listbox-a-different-view/
but VBA may be too slow if you deal with very long lists combined with fast
typing users

Best wishes Harald