combobox auto complete any string occurrence

Question

I'm using a ComboBox featuring auto complete. This code is being used:

comboBox1.DropDownStyle = System.Windows.Forms.ComboBoxStyle.DropDown;
comboBox1.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend;
comboBox1.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.ListItems;
comboBox1.DataSource = items;

DataSource's items is a List<String>. Assuming I have a list of names (like John May), searching for May will not show the ComboBox item "John May". Instead, I have to enter "John" for John May to be displayed.

What do I need to adjust so that the entire ComboBox entry is searched instead of just the first part of the string? I'm looking forward to seeing some suggestions.

Answer 1

Obviously you can't perform such operations with an autocomplete class. Instead you can create your custom source with data table. Data table allows to search words with "Like" function.

1. Create data table as a main table (Don't change the data of this table while typing in combo box).
2. Load your list to the table
3. perform search operations.
4. Perform filter operations and load your filtered results in temporary table.
5. Set temporary table as customer source of combo box.

For clear answer check this MSDN link.

Answer 2

I couldn't get the first referenced MSDN to work Mitja Bonca and the second option by Pouya Lariyan didn't work straight off for me ( I think it relies on the items being set in the UI. So with credit I'm positng the code I adapted from Pouya'

usage

autoCompleteCmb = new AutoCompleteCombobox();
autoCompleteCmb.SelectedIndexChanged += selectedIndexChanged;
this.Controls.Add(autoCompleteCmb );
var listTest = new List<string> { "Paul", "Pauline", "Daniel" };
listTest.ForEach(i=> {autoCompleteCmb.Items.Add(i)});

UserControl AutoCompleteCombobox.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace MyNamespace
{
public partial class AutoCompleteCombobox : ComboBox
{
    public AutoCompleteCombobox()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
    public IList<object> m_collectionList = null;


    public AutoCompleteCombobox(IContainer container)
    {
        container.Add(this);
    }

    protected override void OnTextUpdate(EventArgs e)
    {
        if (m_collectionList == null)
        {
            m_collectionList = this.Items.OfType<object>().ToList();
        }

        IList<object> values = m_collectionList
            .Where(x => x.ToString().ToLower().Contains(Text.ToLower()))
            .ToList<object>();

        this.Items.Clear();
        this.Items.AddRange(this.Text != string.Empty ? values.ToArray() : m_collectionList.ToArray());

        this.SelectionStart = this.Text.Length;
        this.DroppedDown = true;
        this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
    }

    protected override void OnTextChanged(EventArgs e)
    {
        if (this.Text != string.Empty) return;
        this.Items.Clear();
        this.Items.AddRange(m_collectionList.ToArray());
    }

  }
}