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First Posted 7 Jan 2004
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Adjust combo box drop down list width to longest string width

By | 7 Jan 2004 | Article
Automatically adjust the width of the drop down list of a combo box to the width of its longest item string.

Sample Image - ComboBoxAutoWidth.jpg

Introduction

This small snippet of code will show you how to automatically adjust the size of the drop down list of a combo box to fit the size of the longest string in its items.

Code

Step 1: Add an event handler for the DropDown event of the combo box. Call it AdjustWidthComboBox_DropDown for the sake of the following code.

Step 2: Add the following event handler code.

private void AdjustWidthComboBox_DropDown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    ComboBox senderComboBox = (ComboBox)sender;
    int width = senderComboBox.DropDownWidth;
    Graphics g = senderComboBox.CreateGraphics();
    Font font = senderComboBox.Font;
    int vertScrollBarWidth = 
        (senderComboBox.Items.Count>senderComboBox.MaxDropDownItems)
        ?SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth:0;

    int newWidth;
    foreach (string s in ((ComboBox)sender).Items)
    {
        newWidth = (int) g.MeasureString(s, font).Width 
            + vertScrollBarWidth;
        if (width < newWidth )
        {
            width = newWidth;
        }
    }
    senderComboBox.DropDownWidth = width;
}

Explanation

The code assumes that the handler is only for a ComboBox and does a cast without checking the type of the sender.

It then gets the Graphics and Font objects for the combo box which will help us to measure the size of the string in the list.

senderComboBox.Items.Count>senderComboBox.MaxDropDownItems checks whether a scrollbar will be displayed. If it is going to be displayed, then we get its width to adjust the size of the drop down list accordingly.

We then scroll through the list of items checking the size of each item and finally setting the width of the drop down list to the width of the largest item including scroll bar width.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

SathishVJ



France France

Member

~/sathishvj

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Comments and Discussions

 
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GeneralMy vote of 5 PinmemberHesron M. Gozano17:36 19 Nov '11  
Questioncode for webbased application PinmemberAtul Naik19:05 16 Nov '11  
Questioncode for webbased application PinmemberAtul Naik19:03 16 Nov '11  
GeneralSolution for databound combobox inside Pinmemberavalon12321:29 7 Apr '11  
GeneralMaking it work with Databound combobox Pinmemberkanreddyjp0:38 11 Oct '10  
GeneralVERY Useful PinmemberOmar Gamil8:30 16 Apr '10  
GeneralUsing extension method PinmemberC#rizje5:05 31 May '09  
QuestionCode PinmemberDanielHH7:01 28 Apr '09  
QuestionOn which event we have to bind? Pinmemberharshkapoors4:11 19 Apr '09  
GeneralPlz provide sorce code for this article.. PinmemberMember 32591772:38 10 Jan '09  
hi
can u plz provide sample source code for this article..
 
Thanks iam waitng for ur reply...
 
ramesh n
 
ramesh

GeneralSuggestion: Don't assign DropDownWidth to variable 'width' Pinmemberqian_xu16:54 31 Oct '07  
GeneralCouple of suggestions PinmemberCleaKO10:01 30 Mar '07  
GeneralDropDown list width increment according to the value in list Pinmembervinodgn18:28 4 Nov '06  
GeneralRe: DropDown list width increment according to the value in list PinmemberCleaKO9:59 30 Mar '07  
GeneralProblem with foreign language (non-English) PinmemberKiTsuNeKo22:22 10 Nov '05  
GeneralDropDownList PinmemberDoomKickYourAss5:26 11 Aug '05  
GeneralVB.Net Code Pinmemberalardaen2:50 21 May '05  
Generalcustom Validator in asp .net PinsussDhananjaneyulud0:45 13 Dec '04  
GeneralOnly calculate when filling combobox Pinmemberalcoh1:36 30 Nov '04  
GeneralAllow ComboItem to be an object... Pinmemberezanker11:11 15 Jan '04  
GeneralRe: Allow ComboItem to be an object... Pinmemberoscar ho10:22 19 Jan '04  
GeneralNot working inside OnDropDown PinmemberSrinivaasan M21:11 13 Jan '04  
GeneralRe: Not working inside OnDropDown PinmemberSathishVJ6:09 14 Jan '04  
GeneralRe: Not working inside OnDropDown PinmemberSurendran121:04 26 Apr '09  
GeneralAny Chance PinmemberGeovani1:08 13 Jan '04  

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