Solution 1 :

I hope this will help you !!

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<style>
* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
  font: 16px Arial;  
}

/*the container must be positioned relative:*/
.autocomplete {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
}

input {
  border: 1px solid transparent;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  padding: 10px;
  font-size: 16px;
}

input[type=text] {
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  width: 100%;
}

input[type=submit] {
  background-color: DodgerBlue;
  color: #fff;
  cursor: pointer;
}

.autocomplete-items {
  position: absolute;
  border: 1px solid #d4d4d4;
  border-bottom: none;
  border-top: none;
  z-index: 99;
  /*position the autocomplete items to be the same width as the container:*/
  top: 100%;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
}

.autocomplete-items div {
  padding: 10px;
  cursor: pointer;
  background-color: #fff; 
  border-bottom: 1px solid #d4d4d4; 
}

/*when hovering an item:*/
.autocomplete-items div:hover {
  background-color: #e9e9e9; 
}

/*when navigating through the items using the arrow keys:*/
.autocomplete-active {
  background-color: DodgerBlue !important; 
  color: #ffffff; 
}
</style>
</head>     
<body>

<h2>Autocomplete</h2>

<p>Start typing:</p>

<!--Make sure the form has the autocomplete function switched off:-->
<form autocomplete="off" action="/action_page.php">
  <div class="autocomplete" style="width:300px;">
    <input id="myInput" type="text" name="myCountry">
  </div>
  <input type="submit">
</form>

<script>
function autocomplete(inp, arr) {
  /*the autocomplete function takes two arguments,
  the text field element and an array of possible autocompleted values:*/
  var currentFocus;
  /*execute a function when someone writes in the text field:*/
  inp.addEventListener("input", function(e) {
      var a, b, i, val = this.value;
      /*close any already open lists of autocompleted values*/
      closeAllLists();
      if (!val) { return false;}
      currentFocus = -1;
      /*create a DIV element that will contain the items (values):*/
      a = document.createElement("DIV");
      a.setAttribute("id", this.id + "autocomplete-list");
      a.setAttribute("class", "autocomplete-items");
      /*append the DIV element as a child of the autocomplete container:*/
      this.parentNode.appendChild(a);
      /*for each item in the array...*/
      for (i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        /*check if the item starts with the same letters as the text field value:*/
        if (arr[i].substr(0, val.length).toUpperCase() == val.toUpperCase()) {
          /*create a DIV element for each matching element:*/
          b = document.createElement("DIV");
          /*make the matching letters bold:*/
          b.innerHTML = "<strong>" + arr[i].substr(0, val.length) + "</strong>";
          b.innerHTML += arr[i].substr(val.length);
          /*insert a input field that will hold the current array item's value:*/
          b.innerHTML += "<input type='hidden' value='" + arr[i] + "'>";
          /*execute a function when someone clicks on the item value (DIV element):*/
          b.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
              /*insert the value for the autocomplete text field:*/
              inp.value = this.getElementsByTagName("input")[0].value;
              /*close the list of autocompleted values,
              (or any other open lists of autocompleted values:*/
              closeAllLists();
          });
          a.appendChild(b);
        }
      }
  });
  /*execute a function presses a key on the keyboard:*/
  inp.addEventListener("keydown", function(e) {
      var x = document.getElementById(this.id + "autocomplete-list");
      if (x) x = x.getElementsByTagName("div");
      if (e.keyCode == 40) {
        /*If the arrow DOWN key is pressed,
        increase the currentFocus variable:*/
        currentFocus++;
        /*and and make the current item more visible:*/
        addActive(x);
      } else if (e.keyCode == 38) { //up
        /*If the arrow UP key is pressed,
        decrease the currentFocus variable:*/
        currentFocus--;
        /*and and make the current item more visible:*/
        addActive(x);
      } else if (e.keyCode == 13) {
        /*If the ENTER key is pressed, prevent the form from being submitted,*/
        e.preventDefault();
        if (currentFocus > -1) {
          /*and simulate a click on the "active" item:*/
          if (x) x[currentFocus].click();
        }
      }
  });
  function addActive(x) {
    /*a function to classify an item as "active":*/
    if (!x) return false;
    /*start by removing the "active" class on all items:*/
    removeActive(x);
    if (currentFocus >= x.length) currentFocus = 0;
    if (currentFocus < 0) currentFocus = (x.length - 1);
    /*add class "autocomplete-active":*/
    x[currentFocus].classList.add("autocomplete-active");
  }
  function removeActive(x) {
    /*a function to remove the "active" class from all autocomplete items:*/
    for (var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
      x[i].classList.remove("autocomplete-active");
    }
  }
  function closeAllLists(elmnt) {
    /*close all autocomplete lists in the document,
    except the one passed as an argument:*/
    var x = document.getElementsByClassName("autocomplete-items");
    for (var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
      if (elmnt != x[i] && elmnt != inp) {
        x[i].parentNode.removeChild(x[i]);
      }
    }
  }
  /*execute a function when someone clicks in the document:*/
  document.addEventListener("click", function (e) {
      closeAllLists(e.target);
  });
}

/*An array containing all the country names in the world:*/
var countries = ["Byleth","Edelgard","Hubert"];

/*initiate the autocomplete function on the "myInput" element, and pass along the countries array as possible autocomplete values:*/
autocomplete(document.getElementById("myInput"), countries);
</script>

</body>
</html>

Problem :

I am making what is essentially a online calculator but I have a large dropdown of options to select from for one of the options.

To make it more user-friendly I wanted to add a simple search (text input) to filter through the options.

So I have (HTML):

<select name="character_select" id="character_select">
  <option value="Byleth", id="Byleth">Byleth</option>
  <option value="Edelgard", id="Edelgard">Edelgard</option>
  <option value="Hubert", id="Hubert">Hubert</option>
  <option value="Dorothea", id="Dorothea">Dorothea</option>
  <option value="Ferdinand", id="Ferdinand">Ferdinand</option>
  <option value="Caspar", id="Caspar">Caspar</option>
  <option value="Petra", id="Petra">Petra</option>
</select>

And was thinking I could make a text input at the top and use js to fetch the options and then filter through them with a for loop:

something like:

search = document.getElementById("search");
filtered_search = search.value.toUpperCase();
options=getElementsByTagName("option");
 for (i = 0; i < option.length; i++) {
    txtValue = option[i].textContent || option[i].innerText;
    if (txtValue.toUpperCase().indexOf(filtered_search) > -1) {
      option[i].style.display = "";
    } else {
      option[i].style.display = "none";
    }
 }

Is this an acceptable way to perform this? Is there anything better?

In addition, would it be possible to add a second attribute to my dropdown options (like the top 5 have an id of “apples”) and then have the search also show those options when “apple” is searched?

I assume I could just add another else if statement to the JS and go from there but was wondering if it might be better to create some form of index system to increase speed if I were to add more searchable attributes to the options?

I’m a bit of a rookie in the JS space and I apologize if the question is too open-ended but I just need some general direction for best practice.

Comments

Comment posted by developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/datalist

Are you aware of the

Comment posted by AshCloudOverHades

@Evert No I wasn’t but that’s super useful, thankyou

Comment posted by AshCloudOverHades

The autocomplete does make way more sense and seems more comfy, thanks for the help!

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