AutoComplete for ComboBox In Which Only Existing Items are Allowed

Category:

Forms and Controls

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Beginning

Author:

Jack Mossman

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic 6

More information:

Make sure to add items to Combo1. Combo1 must have a style of "0-Dropdown Combo".

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
Private miSelStart As Integer

Code:

Private Sub Combo1_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
    '<Delete>
    If KeyCode = 46 Then KeyCode = 0 'Disable the delete key

miSelStart = Combo1.SelStart
End Sub

Private Sub Combo1_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)    
    Dim lCnt       As Long 'Generic long counter
    Dim lMax       As Long
    Dim sComboItem As String 
    Dim sComboText As String 'Text currently in combobox
    Dim sText      As String 'Text after keypressed

With Combo1
        lMax = .ListCount - 1 
        sComboText = .TEXT 
        sText = Left(sComboText, miSelStart) & Chr(KeyAscii)
        
        KeyAscii = 0 'Reset key pressed
        
        For lCnt = 0 To lMax
            sComboItem = .List(lCnt)
            
            If UCase(sText) = UCase(Left(sComboItem, _
                                         Len(sText))) Then
                .ListIndex = lCnt
                .TEXT = sComboItem
                .SelStart = Len(sText)
                .SelLength = Len(sComboItem) - (Len(sText))
                
                Exit For
            End If
        Next 'lCnt
    End With
End Sub