Selection via keyboard in JComboBox

Question

Hi all,
I use a JComboBox with the followin items:
"New York", "Netherlands", "Nigeria"
When the JComboBox has the focus and the user starts typing <n> + <e> + <t> then "Netherlands" should be selected, whe he starts typing <n> + <e> + <w> then
"New York" should be selected an so on...
How can I do this or where can I find more information?
Best regards
Juergen

Answer 1

... I've found a solution:
I've written my own class which extends KeySelectionManager (see below).
Then use myJComboBox.setKeySelectionManager(new IncrementalKeySelManager ()); to set the KeySelectionManager for your JComboBox.
This works for JDK1.3.
Best regards
J�rgen
Stuttgart
Germany
class IncrementalKeySelManager implements JComboBox.KeySelectionManager {
     private long lastKeyPressTime = new Date().getTime();
     private StringBuffer searchString = new StringBuffer("");
     public int selectionForKey(char aKey, ComboBoxModel aModel) {
          try {
               long actKeyPressTime = new Date().getTime();
               if (lastKeyPressTime + 1000 < actKeyPressTime) {
                    searchString = new StringBuffer("");
               if (aKey >= 33
                    && aKey <= 127
                    || aKey == '�'
                    || aKey == '�'
                    || aKey == '�'
                    || aKey == '�'
                    || aKey == '�'
                    || aKey == '�') {
                    searchString = searchString.append(aKey);
               } else {
//                    System.out.println("aKey: " + aKey);
               lastKeyPressTime = actKeyPressTime;
               for (int i = 0; i < aModel.getSize(); i++) {
                    Object entry = aModel.getElementAt(i);
                    String listItem = entry.toString().toUpperCase();
//                    System.out.println(
//                         "testing '"
//                              + listItem
//                              + "' with '"
//                              + searchString.toString().toUpperCase()
//                              + "'; lastKey: "
//                              + (int) aKey);
                    if (listItem.startsWith(searchString.toString().toUpperCase())) {
                         return i;
               return -1;
          } catch (Exception ex) {
               return -1;
}