How to Find Records Using an Autocomplete TextBox in C#.

Submitted by janobe on Monday, April 29, 2019 - 21:15.

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to find records using an autocomplete textbox in c#. This method has the ability to find records immediately by typing the data in the textbox . It also has the capability to auto-suggest and appends if there is an existing name in the database that you type in the textbox. Lets begin.

Creating Application

Step 1

Open Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and create a new windows form application in C#. ps1

Step 2

Do the form just like shown below. ps2

Step 3

Press F7 to open the code editor. In the code editor, add a namespace for OLeDB to access OLeDB libraries.

using System.Data.OleDb;

Step 4

Create a connection between access database and c#. After that, declare all the classes that are needed.

        OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection("Provider = Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0; Data Source =" + Application.StartupPath + "/studentdb.accdb");
        OleDbCommand cmd;
        OleDbDataAdapter da;
        DataTable dt;
        string sql;

Step 5

Create a method for autocomplete textbox.

 
        private void autocomplete_texbox(string sql,TextBox txt)
        {
            try
            {
                con.Open();
 
                cmd = new OleDbCommand();
                da = new OleDbDataAdapter();
                dt = new DataTable();
 
                cmd.Connection = con;
                cmd.CommandText = sql;
 
                da.SelectCommand = cmd;
                da.Fill(dt);
                txt.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend;
                txt.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource;
                txt.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Clear();
 
                foreach(DataRow r in dt.Rows)
                {
                    txt.AutoCompleteCustomSource.Add(r.Field<string>("Fname"));
                }
 
            }
            catch(Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
            finally
            {
                con.Close();
                da.Dispose();
            }
        }

Step 6

Create a method for searching data.

 
        private void find_Records(string sql,DataGridView dtg)
        {
            try
            {
                con.Open();
 
                cmd = new OleDbCommand();
                da = new OleDbDataAdapter();
                dt = new DataTable();
 
                cmd.Connection = con;
                cmd.CommandText = sql;
 
                da.SelectCommand = cmd;
                da.Fill(dt);
 
                dtg.DataSource = dt;
 
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
            finally
            {
                con.Close();
                da.Dispose();
            }
 
        }

Step 7

Do the following code to execute the autocomplete in a textbox method in the first load of the form.

 
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            sql = "Select * From tblstudent";
            autocomplete_texbox(sql, textBox1);
 
        }

Step 8

Do the following code to execute the searching of data method.

 
        private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            sql = "Select * FROM tblstudent WHERE Fname Like '%" + textBox1.Text + "%'";
            find_Records(sql, dataGridView1);
        }

Download the complete source code and run it on your computer. For any questions about this article. You can contact me @ Email – [email protected] Mobile No. – 09305235027 – TNT Or feel free to comment below

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