vb 6.0 combo box delimma

FASTian

well i need to set text for a combo and i dont want anyone else to be able to edit the text. Once some text has been selected the user can also be able to choose an item from the combo meaning i dont want the lock property. I've set the style to 0 and i can do the set text part but it is editable. When i set the combo style property to 2 then i cant set text in the combo. Any ideas what i am missing out on??

Dave Kreskowiak

I'm confused... What exactly are you trying to do? A ComboBox, style = 2, would let you pick from the list, but not edit the text in the textbox. IIRC, you can set the text in the textbox through code, but only if the text matches an item in the list. So what's the goal here? RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

FASTian

i need to select a particular text and the user should not be able to edit the combo box. Thanks for the reply

Dave Kreskowiak

FASTian wrote: the user should not be able to edit the combo box Then you'll have to make your selection in code and then set the .Enabled property to False. If you let the user make another selection from the dropdown of the combo, that selection will replace any text in the textbox portion of the combo. If you don't want the user to change that text, you either have to disable to combobox or handle the Changed event and, in the event handler, check to see if the .Text property is changed from what it is supposed to be and set it back if necessary. RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Desi Bravo

Your explanation is a bit vague. But using a combo box is easy to construct. No one cannot edit a combo box. I created through a tutorial Customer Orders. This utilizes a combo box with a listing of companies, and updates the customer orders. Also includes a set of dropdown date calendars. These infomation are stored in an access database not sql server. bravo659

FASTian

ok maybe i am explaining this wrong. Here's the actual scenario: 1. We query the server about all the possible city names available and fills the combo box with all the names. Eg. AA,AB,AC and AD 2. When the customer enters a phone number we search the database and if the phone number exists then i just want the combo box to show the city that the matches the phone number for Eg. AB is the city the number matches to then AB should be selected in the combo box. If the number matches no city then we do nothing. 3. We also DONT want the customer to be able to edit the combo box field. 4. The customer can also SELECT a city himself if he wants to by selecting a value from the combo box. anyways thanks for even lookin at this

EdbertP

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I know what you want: You want to set a specific text into the combobox (from one of the items in the list) through code and you don't want users to edit the combobox text. There are several ways you can do this: 1. Use this function to get and set the index of the item (instead of the text) you want to select in the combobox while keeping your combobox style to 2:

Public Function GetComboBoxIndex(hWnd As Long, SearchKey As String, Optional FindExactMatch As Boolean = True) As Integer

'Parameters:
' hWnd - the handle to the ComboBox control.  Usage:  Combo1.hWnd
' SearchKey - item that you would like to search for.  Can be any string - case doesn't matter when searching
' Optional FindExactMatch - Default is True.  Pass False to find a partial match
'Return:
' Returns the index of the found match.  If the match is not found, -1 is returned
'Usage:
' Combo1.ListIndex = GetComboBoxIndex(Combo1.hWnd, "Test Item")
' Combo1.ListIndex = GetComboBoxIndex(Combo1.hWnd, "Test Item", False)

If FindExactMatch Then
    GetComboBoxIndex = CInt(SendMessage(hWnd, CB\_FINDSTRINGEXACT, -1, ByVal SearchKey))
Else
    GetComboBoxIndex = CInt(SendMessage(hWnd, CB\_FINDSTRING, -1, ByVal SearchKey))
End If

End Function

2. Similar to #1, you can iterate through the combobox item and compare the text to get the index, but this is inefficient. 3. You can implement the AutoFill function on the KeyPress event and IsComboboxItemValid on the Validate event for the combobox. This enables user to type into the combobox (using style 0) but also makes sure that whatever they type will be in the items list.

Public Sub AutoFillCombobox(ByRef comboBox As comboBox, ByRef KeyAscii As Integer)

Dim intIndex As Integer
Dim intRemainder As Integer
Dim strFullText As String
Dim strPartialText As String

If comboBox.Locked Then
    KeyAscii = 0
    Exit Sub
End If

If KeyAscii >= 33 And KeyAscii <= 126 Then
    comboBox.SelText = Chr(KeyAscii)
    strPartialText = comboBox.Text
    
    intIndex = GetComboBoxIndex(comboBox.hWnd, strPartialText, False)
    If intIndex > -1 Then
        strFullText = comboBox.List(intIndex)
        intRemainder = Len(strFullText) - Len(strPartialText)
        If intRemainder > 0 Then
            comboBox.SelStart = Len(comboBox.Text)
            comboBox.SelText = Right(strFullT

FASTian

THANKS !! this is what i've been looking for. Sorry guys i guess was being a bit vague in the beginning :-O . anyway the only thing missing is the IsComboboxItemListed(comboBox, intIndex) function and defination CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT i know this is kinda stupid to ask for everything but am a newbie to VB and this is probably the first thing i got stuck on in VB. Thanks for the help dude.. really appreciate it

Lost User

I can't access my PC right now, and this is what I found through Google. If this doesn't work, try searching through Google again. Private Const CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT = &H158 Cheers :-D Edbert P