Google like dropdown box when user is searching

Question

I am using asp.net C# 2008, and I need to create a search textbox which will display dropdown values (similar to google search); The values displayed in the dropdown will be values from the SQL 2005 database (example the user is searching on FirstName, the dropwdown will display all firstnames, which get filtered as the user types in more letters.... if user is searching on LastName, the dropdown displays all LastName values in the database.. etc)

Any ideas how to go about this task?

Answer 1

You're looking for an Auto Complete behavior for you text box. i suggest using a ready jQuery plugin solution.

http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Autocomplete

Answer 2

I would recommend checking out the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit's implementation if the AutoComplete control. The once the toolkit is installed you can extend the standard ASP WebForm TextBox control to use it.