Is it possible set my Excel Userform Combo box to begin narrowing the fields while data is entered? - vba

Question

VBA Newbie here.
I have searched high and low for this answer, and even come across other questions very similar to mine, but cannot get an answer. So I am hoping that this is my lucky day.
I have a Userform in excel that has Four combo boxes. Each combo box has a drop down with several choices. In two of these boxes, there are many business names and a lot of these names are similar. I was wanting to have the feature where are the data was being typed into the box, it would begin to narrow the options. EXAMPLE: if I type "heating and air" it begins to only show items in the list that include that word or phrase.
Is this a properties change in the box, or a code written, or something else?
Please help- I am stumped and no one seems to have the answer.
Very grateful-
Excel Newbie

Answer 1

Yes this is very possible. All you have to do is create a sub that populates that combo box, set it up so that when adding it checks the value of the box for example if it was the basic typing example. basic format. This assumes the possible values are stored in an array. This would add any item that has the string entered in it. (in any position)
For I = 0 to Number of Values
If instr(Value(I), ComboBox.Text) > 0 then
add item
endif
next

Answer 2

I played around a bit and came up with something to get you started. This basically functions as an "auto search". It is not autocomplete because it will search entire terms, not just terms which begin with whatever you've typed in. Basically I assume you have a range of cells (in this example cells A2:A121) that have the date for your drop down in it.
Setup
Add a new generic module (I named mine GlobalVars and add the following code:
Option Explicit
Public IgnoreChange As Boolean
Public RangeOfData As Variant
The Code
Open the code to your UserForm.
Add the following code:
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
RangeOfData = Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Sheet1.Range("A2:A121").Value)
IgnoreChange = False
End Sub
Be sure to update A2:A121 and Sheet1 (I am using code name, but Worksheets("Sheet1") would work just as well) to point to the data which contains your combobox choices.
Now, the meat of the job is handled in the Combobox_Change event
Private Sub ComboBox1_Change()
If Me.ComboBox1.Text = vbNullString Then
Me.ComboBox1.Clear
SendKeys ("{Enter}")
End If
If Me.ComboBox1.TextLength > 2 Then
Dim i As Long, j As Long
If IgnoreChange = False Then
Me.ComboBox1.Clear
SendKeys ("{Enter}")
DoEvents 'Bug with NumLock
For i = LBound(RangeOfData) To UBound(RangeOfData)
If UCase(RangeOfData(i)) Like "*" & UCase(Me.ComboBox1.Text) & "*" Then
Me.ComboBox1.AddItem RangeOfData(i)
End If
Next i
Me.ComboBox1.DropDown
End If
End If
IgnoreChange = False
End Sub
Be sure to change ComboBox1 to the name of your combobox control.
Basically, what this does is it handles user input when it reaches two characters or longer. The code will search through your input data range and then return results that match the string as the user is entering it. The results is like a suggestions box.
I should note that with this method, the combobox is NOT pre-populated with data, so users must begin typing something into the combobox.
Additionally, I added the following code to handle the backspace key:
Private Sub ComboBox1_KeyDown(ByVal KeyCode As MSForms.ReturnInteger, ByVal Shift As Integer)
If KeyCode = 8 Then
IgnoreChange = True
End If
End Sub
Again be sure to change ComboBox1 as appropriate.
For my example, I loaded all 120 crayola crayon colors into a spreadsheet (that is what is in Sheet1 from A2:A121).
Here is example output for when I start typing, first I input blu:
As you can see I am getting all values that contain blu, including those that don't start with blu such as Cadet Blue or Midnight blue.
As another example, I will search for flower
So as you can see, instead of being a combobox with 120 static options, it is updated based on what the user types and tied to a list of values in your cells.
I did notice that SendKeys sometimes toggled my NumLock, this is a known issue. The point of that line is to collapse the drop down after the user deletes all of the text or continues texting so as to "refresh" the auto-generated list.