Winforms Autocomplete Examples

Overview

The WinForms AutoComplete component allows users to enable autocomplete functionality to edit controls. It supports multi-column suggestions with headers, multiple modes (Suggest, Append, SuggestAppend), and rich appearance customization. See What is WinForms AutoComplete for details: https://www.syncfusion.com/kb/1086/what-is-the-autocomplete-control

AutoComplete Modes

• Suggest: Shows suggestions in a drop-down list.

• Append: Appends the best match to the typed text.

• SuggestAppend: Combines Suggest and Append.

DataSource for AutoComplete

Datasource for AutoComplete operates in one of two ways, chosen by the DataSource property:

• History Data List mode: When DataSource is null (default), the control records and uses user-entered items. Set CategoryName, AutoAddItem, and AutoSerialize appropriately for this mode.
• Data source mode: When DataSource is set, items come from your bound list.

Override Combo

When using a standard Windows Forms ComboBox as the editor, you can suppress the ComboBox’s own drop-down and use AutoComplete’s suggestion UI via the OverrideCombo property.

Persistence

The AutoComplete history list can be persisted in the following formats:

• Binary file/stream
• XML file/stream
• Isolated storage
• Windows Registry

You control this via the PersistState property and AppStateSerializer settings. Note: The serializer type is Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.AppStateSerializer.

Integration with RichTextBox control

You can enable AutoComplete on a RichTextBox by implementing IEditControlsEmbed and calling SetAutoComplete.

Step 1: Implement IEditControlsEmbed

    using System.Windows.Forms;
    using Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Tools;

    public class CustomRichTextBox : RichTextBox, IEditControlsEmbed
    {
           // Returns the active RichTextBox control.
            public Control GetActiveEditControl(IEditControlsEmbedListener listener)
            {
                       return (Control)this;
            }
     }

Step 2: Attach AutoComplete

    var autoComplete = new AutoComplete();
    var richTextBox = new CustomRichTextBox();    
    autoComplete.SetAutoComplete(richTextBox, AutoCompleteModes.AutoSuggest);