Re: dynamic combo entry

["Jim George" <jimgeorge gmail com>]

On 8/7/07, Dave Howorth <dhoworth mrc-lmb cam ac uk> wrote:
> Jim George wrote:
> > It may not be exactly what you want, but gtk_entry_set_completion might help.
>
> It looks interesting. I've found the page in the reference manual and it
> says lots of things that sound intriguing but I'm having trouble
> grasping exactly what a GtkEntryCompletion can do :(  Are there any
> tutorials or examples to help me understand what it's capable of?
>
> Cheers, Dave


Here's a quick example:
...

GtkTreeIter iter;
GtkListStore *model = gtk_list_store_new(1, G_TYPE_STRING);
for (ctr = 0; ctr < NUM_ENTRIES; ctr++) {
        gtk_list_store_append (model, &iter);
        /* Assume that 'entries' contains NUM_ENTRIES char *s */
        gtk_list_store_set (model, &iter, 0, entries[ctr], -1);
}

gtk_entry_set_text(entry_widget, default_text);

GtkEntryCompletion *entry_comp = gtk_entry_completion_new();
gtk_entry_set_completion(entry_widget, entry_comp);
/* We can unref the completion object since the entry holds a ref anyway */
g_object_unref(entry_comp);

gtk_entry_completion_set_model(entry_comp, GTK_TREE_MODEL(model));
/* Now when the widget is destroyed, model is automatically freed */
g_object_unref(model);
/* All the entries are in column 0 */
gtk_entry_completion_set_text_column(entry_comp, 0);

...

I use this when asking the user for a remote host name. I store a list
of most-recently-used hosts, which populates the completion list. When
the user types in a host name, if the first few characters match, a
list pops up with all the remaining matches. Unfortunately, unlike a
combo box, there's no way for the user to force this list to be shown
(feature request?) In your case though (with 0.5e6 entries), this may
actually be A Good Thing.

-Jim