VB3 How to Quickly Search a List Box

MORE INFORMATION

This technique uses the LB_FINDSTRING message for a list box to locate a partial match for a string in a list box. To do this, call the Windows API SendMessage function. The SendMessage function requires the following parameters to list the files:

   SendMessage (hWnd%,LB_FINDSTRING, wParam%, lparam)
				

where

Example to Demonstrate Searching a List Box

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic and add a text box (Text1) and a list box (list1) to Form1.
2. Add the following code to the General declarations section of Form1:

     ' Enter the Declare statement on one single line:
      Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user" (ByVal hwnd As Integer,
         ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wp As Integer, lp As Any) As Long
        Const WM_USER = &H400
      Const LB_FINDSTRING = (WM_USER + 16)
   						

3. In the Form_Load method for the form, add a few items to the list box using the following code:

      Sub Form_Load()
          List1.Clear
          List1.AddItem "Apples"
          List1.AddItem "Banana"
          List1.AddItem "Bread"
          List1.AddItem "Break"
      End Sub
   						

4. In the Change method of the text box, add the following code:

      Sub Text1_Change()
          ' The following code should be on one single line:
        List1.ListIndex = SendMessage(List1.hWnd, LB_FINDSTRING, -1, ByVal
        Cstr(Text1.Text))
      End Sub
   						

When the code runs, typing text into the text box will select the first item in the list that matches the text in the text box.