Drop-down box width with combined offer

Question

I have a form that has a Combo Box Control. I chose the drop down property for DropDown. I also set DropDown Width to 250. I set automatic full mode to offer, and automatic full source for listitems. It works absolutely fine when I click on the dropdown menu. but when I enter something, the automatic mode completes the dropdown below, which has a small width.

any help appreciated. I want to know how to increase the width of automatic full dropdown using code so that the list items are viewed correctly. I am using C #.

I asked about this a couple of months ago, but did not get the right answer. Now the client wants it bad :( ??

Answer 1

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

/// <summary>  
/// Represents an ComboBox with additional properties for setting the   
/// size of the AutoComplete Drop-Down window.  
/// </summary>  
public class ComboBoxEx : ComboBox
{
private int acDropDownHeight = 106;
private int acDropDownWidth = 170;


//<EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always), _  

[Browsable(true), Description("The width, in pixels, of the auto complete drop down box"), DefaultValue(170)]
public int AutoCompleteDropDownWidth
{
    get { return acDropDownWidth; }

    set { acDropDownWidth = value; }
}


//<EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always), _  

[Browsable(true), Description("The height, in pixels, of the auto complete drop down box"), DefaultValue(106)]
public int AutoCompleteDropDownHeight
{
    get { return acDropDownHeight; }

    set { acDropDownHeight = value; }
}


protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
{
    base.OnHandleCreated(e);

    ACWindow.RegisterOwner(this);
}

#region Nested type: ACWindow

/// <summary>  
/// Provides an encapsulation of an Auto complete drop down window   
/// handle and window proc.  
/// </summary>  
private class ACWindow : NativeWindow
{
    private static readonly Dictionary<IntPtr, ACWindow> ACWindows;

    #region "Win API Declarations"

    private const UInt32 WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED = 0x47;

    private const UInt32 WM_NCDESTROY = 0x82;


    private const UInt32 SWP_NOSIZE = 0x1;

    private const UInt32 SWP_NOMOVE = 0x2;

    private const UInt32 SWP_NOZORDER = 0x4;

    private const UInt32 SWP_NOREDRAW = 0x8;

    private const UInt32 SWP_NOACTIVATE = 0x10;


    private const UInt32 GA_ROOT = 2;
    private static readonly List<ComboBoxEx> owners;


    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern bool EnumThreadWindows(int dwThreadId, EnumThreadDelegate lpfn, IntPtr lParam);


    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr GetAncestor(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 gaFlags);


    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetCurrentThreadId();


    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern void GetClassName(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder lpClassName, int nMaxCount);


    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern bool SetWindowPos(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, int X, int Y, int cx, int cy,
                                            uint uFlags);


    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern bool GetWindowRect(IntPtr hWnd, ref RECT lpRect);

    #region Nested type: EnumThreadDelegate

    private delegate bool EnumThreadDelegate(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr lParam);

    #endregion

    #region Nested type: RECT

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    private struct RECT
    {
        public readonly int Left;

        public readonly int Top;

        public readonly int Right;

        public readonly int Bottom;


        public Point Location
        {
            get { return new Point(Left, Top); }
        }
    }

    #endregion

    #endregion

    private ComboBoxEx owner;

    static ACWindow()
    {
        ACWindows = new Dictionary<IntPtr, ACWindow>();

        owners = new List<ComboBoxEx>();
    }


    /// <summary>  
    /// Creates a new ACWindow instance from a specific window handle.  
    /// </summary>  
    private ACWindow(IntPtr handle)
    {
        AssignHandle(handle);
    }


    /// <summary>  
    /// Registers a ComboBoxEx for adjusting the Complete Dropdown window size.  
    /// </summary>  
    public static void RegisterOwner(ComboBoxEx owner)
    {
        if ((owners.Contains(owner)))
        {
            return;
        }

        owners.Add(owner);

        EnumThreadWindows(GetCurrentThreadId(), EnumThreadWindowCallback, IntPtr.Zero);
    }


    /// <summary>  
    /// This callback will receive the handle for each window that is  
    /// associated with the current thread. Here we match the drop down window name   
    /// to the drop down window name and assign the top window to the collection  
    /// of auto complete windows.  
    /// </summary>  
    private static bool EnumThreadWindowCallback(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr lParam)
    {
        if ((GetClassName(hWnd) == "Auto-Suggest Dropdown"))
        {
            IntPtr handle = GetAncestor(hWnd, GA_ROOT);


            if ((!ACWindows.ContainsKey(handle)))
            {
                ACWindows.Add(handle, new ACWindow(handle));
            }
        }

        return true;
    }


    /// <summary>  
    /// Gets the class name for a specific window handle.  
    /// </summary>  
    private static string GetClassName(IntPtr hRef)
    {
        var lpClassName = new StringBuilder(256);

        GetClassName(hRef, lpClassName, 256);

        return lpClassName.ToString();
    }


    /// <summary>  
    /// Overrides the NativeWindow WndProc to handle when the window  
    /// attributes changes.  
    /// </summary>  
    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {
        if ((m.Msg == WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED))
        {
            // If the owner has not been set we need to find the ComboBoxEx that  

            // is associated with this dropdown window. We do it by checking if  

            // the upper-left location of the drop-down window is within the   

            // ComboxEx client rectangle.   

            if ((owner == null))
            {
                Rectangle ownerRect = default(Rectangle);

                var acRect = new RECT();

                foreach (ComboBoxEx cbo in owners)
                {
                    GetWindowRect(Handle, ref acRect);

                    ownerRect = cbo.RectangleToScreen(cbo.ClientRectangle);

                    if ((ownerRect.Contains(acRect.Location)))
                    {
                        owner = cbo;

                        break; // TODO: might not be correct. Was : Exit For
                    }
                }

                owners.Remove(owner);
            }


            if (((owner != null)))
            {
                SetWindowPos(Handle, IntPtr.Zero, -5, 0, owner.AutoCompleteDropDownWidth,
                             owner.AutoCompleteDropDownHeight, SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOZORDER | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
            }
        }


        if ((m.Msg == WM_NCDESTROY))
        {
            ACWindows.Remove(Handle);
        }


        base.WndProc(ref m);
    }
}

#endregion
}

This is what I did, and it really works very well. Good to find the answer :)

Answer 2

This answer is in addition to reggae.

If you want the user to be able to resize the autocomplete drop-down list, add the following code inside the WndProc method:

    private const int WM_SIZING = 0x214;

        if (m.Msg == WM_SIZING) {
            if (owner != null) {
                RECT rr = (RECT) Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(RECT));
                owner.acDropDownWidth = (rr.Right - rr.Left);
                owner.acDropDownHeight = (rr.Bottom - rr.Top);
            }
        }

Answer 3

kind of poor design solution for this. Why not set it to a static large size to get started? You can always use one of the events to get the width of the text, and then use it to set the width of the combobox. Perhaps onPaint? The easiest way is to create your own combobox class, which inherits from the combo box, and then overrides the methods to do it yourself.