How to create a list which the user can search?

[Anonymous]

I currently have a LISP routine with a DCL dialog that is used to specify the merchandise on a fixture. Currently, the DCL has a drop-down box which you use to select the merchandise from a list -- however this list is becoming painfully long (even after being split into departments).

With the current setup, if you are looking for "Milk_2%" you can type "M" in the dialog and it will jump to the first M term. However, if you type in "Mi" it will jump to the first "M" term, and then jump to the first "I" term. With thousands of fixtures per store, and a merchandise list with 80 items per letter at times, being able to search deeper than the first letter would save us a TON of time.

I'm completely OK with a solution that has the user select the merchandise from the command line, or some other interface (if there are any?). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[DannyNL · Accepted solution]

With so many items I would probably use a listbox instead of a dropdown with an additional textbox to input your search string. With every input in the search field you could change the contents of the listbox to only those that have a match so decreasing the number of items in the listbox or maybe jump to the first item in the listbox that has a match.

[Anonymous]

It seems so obvious now.. Thank you for the help Danny!

[DannyNL]

Glad I could help