Good Javascript Combo Box replacement for combo boxes with tons of elements?

Question

I have a page where my combo box has hundreds of elements which makes it very hard to pick the one item I want. Is there a good Javascript replacement that would do better than

<select id="field-component" name="field_component"> 
                  <option selected="selected">1</option><option>2</option>...
</select>

Is there something with "Intellisense"-like auto-complete?

Answer 1

In HTML 5 there's standard combo box.

Currently only Opera supports it, but if you happen to be time traveller or writing Opera-only application, it's a nice solution :)

<input type=text list=listid>
<datalist id=listid>
  <select><option>1<option>2</select>
</datalist>

Answer 2

You have dhtmlCombo, using ajax to retrieve data when you are filling the input field.

dhtmlxCombo is a cross-browser JavaScript combobox with autocomplete feature.

It extends basic selectbox functionality to meet the requirements of the most up-to-date web applications.

dhtmlxCombo can be converted from existing HTML SELECT or populated with JavaScript. Supporting AJAX, it can also get list values from the server datasource dynamically.

Answer 3

Check the jQuery Autocomplete plugin, it's easy to use, you only have to generate a JSON response server side.

See this demos.