JComboBox with type-ahead capabilities?

Question

Hi, guys:
I have a JComboBox with a list of string items. Since the list is very long (with several hundred of items), I would like to implement someting like
the following so that use does not have to scroll down the list to search for an item: when user types the starting letter of an item, it should locate the first item starting with this letter. IE address bar has this kind of type-ahead capability
I am wondering how I can do the similar thing using Swing JComboBox?
regards,

Answer 1

Thanks for your sample, it works.
Here is the "old code" I am talking about. I slightly modified it and add a main method. It looks fine, but it just does not work. I really have no clue why this one just does not work:
import java.awt.event.KeyListener;
import java.util.Vector;
import javax.swing.ComboBoxModel;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
public class SelectableComboBox
    extends JComboBox
    protected boolean required;
    protected JLabel fieldLabel;
    public SelectableComboBox()
        super();
    public SelectableComboBox( final boolean required )
        super();
        this.required = required;
    public SelectableComboBox( final ComboBoxModel model )
        super( model );
    public SelectableComboBox( final Object[] objects )
        super( objects );
    public SelectableComboBox( final Vector v )
        super( v );
    public void setEnabled( final boolean b )
        super.setEnabled( b );
        if( this.fieldLabel != null )
            this.fieldLabel.setEnabled( b );
    public JLabel getLabel()
        return this.fieldLabel;
    public void setLabel( final JLabel l )
        this.fieldLabel = l;
    public JLabel createLabel( final String s )
        this.fieldLabel = new JLabel( s );
        return this.fieldLabel;
    public boolean isEquals( final String s )
        if( this.fieldLabel != null && this.fieldLabel.getText() != null
                && s != null )
            return s.equals( this.fieldLabel.getText() );
        return false;
    public String toString()
        if( this.fieldLabel != null && this.fieldLabel.getText() != null
                && this.fieldLabel.getText().length() > 0 )
            return this.fieldLabel.getText();
        return super.toString();
    public void setRequired( final boolean req )
        this.required = req;
    public boolean isRequired()
        return this.required;
    public JTextField getTextField()
        int total = getComponentCount();
        JTextField field = null;
        for( int i = 0; i < total; i++ )
            if( getComponent( i ) instanceof JTextField )
                field = (JTextField) getComponent( i );
                break;
        return field;
    public JButton getButton()
        int total = getComponentCount();
        JButton button = null;
        for( int i = 0; i < total; i++ )
            if( getComponent( i ) instanceof JButton )
                button = (JButton) getComponent( i );
                break;
        return button;
    public void addKeyListener( final KeyListener l )
        JTextField field = getTextField();
        if( field != null )
            field.addKeyListener( l );
    public void removeKeyListener( final KeyListener l )
        JTextField field = getTextField();
        if( field != null )
            field.removeKeyListener( l );
    public static void main( final String[] args )
        JFrame fr = new JFrame();
        fr.setSize(150,75);
          fr.setLocation(400,300);
          fr.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          JPanel jp = new JPanel();
          SelectableComboBox cb = new SelectableComboBox();
        cb.addItem( "Abc" );
        cb.addItem( "cbs" );
        cb.addItem( "nbc" );
        cb.addItem( "fox" );
        cb.addItem( "wb" );
        cb.addItem( "ycc" );
          jp.add(cb);
          fr.getContentPane().add(jp);
        fr.pack();
        fr.setVisible( true );
}Appreciate your help.