AutoComplete ComboBox C#

Question

i'm loading huge database from excel (about 2000 items) to combobox. For example CD titles. Then i select 1 CD title from this 2000. I'd like to use here autocomplete, but i don't know how..

       // Loading items from Excel
       for (rCnt = 2; rCnt <= range.Rows.Count; rCnt++)
            {
                for (cCnt = 1; cCnt < 2; cCnt++)
                {
                  str = Convert.ToString(saRet[rCnt,cCnt]);
                  // Loading items to ComboBox
                  ReferenceCombo.Items.Add(str);
            }

Answer 1

On your form, you need to set two properties for your ComboBox:

AutoCompleteMode should be Suggest, Append, or SuggestAppend. I recommend SuggestAppend.

AutoCompleteSource should be ListItems.

Answer 2

this method does it for you

    private void LoadStuffNames()
    {

        try
        {
                string Query = "select stuff_name from dbo.stuff";
                string[] names = GetColumnData_FromDB(Query);

                comboName.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.Suggest;
                comboName.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;
                AutoCompleteStringCollection x = new AutoCompleteStringCollection();
                if (names != null && names.Length > 0)
                    foreach (string s in names)
                        x.Add(s);

                comboName.AutoCompleteCustomSource = x;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
        }
        finally
        {
        }

    }

and implement "GetColumnData_FromDB" as you wish

Answer 3

In addition to setting the property referenced by John about 10 minutes ago, here is some code that I use to databind my combo box:

static BindingSource jp2bindingSource = new BindingSource();

void jp2FillCombo() {
  ComboBox comboBox1 = new ComboBox();
  comboBox1.Items.Clear();
  object[] objs = jp2Databind(new DataSet(), "Table1", "Column1", true);
  comboBox1.Items.AddRange(objs);
}

static object[] jp2Databind(DataSet dataset, string tableName, string columnName, bool unique) {
  jp2bindingSource.DataSource = dataset;
  jp2bindingSource.DataMember = tableName;
  List<string> itemTypes = new List<string>();
  foreach (DataRow r in dataset.Tables[tableName].Rows) {
    try {
      object typ = r[columnName];
      if ((typ != null) && (typ != DBNull.Value)) {
        string strTyp = typ.ToString().Trim();
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(strTyp)) {
          if (unique) {
            if (!itemTypes.Contains(strTyp)) {
              itemTypes.Add(strTyp);
            }
          } else {
            itemTypes.Add(strTyp);
          }
        }
      }
    } catch (Exception err) {
      Global.LogError("Databind", err);
    }
  }
  try {
    itemTypes.Sort();
  } catch (Exception err) {
    Console.WriteLine(err.Message);
  }
  return itemTypes.ToArray();
}