Combo Box Control

In nature, a general combo box is the combination of an edit box and a list box. The user can type text in the edit box, and also can select one item from the options listed in the list box. The combo box in MiniGUI can be divided into three types: simple combo box, pull-down combo box, spin combo box and digital spin box. Using pull-down combo box has another advantage, i.e. it can reduce the occupied space of parent window because of using a poll-down list box.

We can create a combo box control by calling CreateWindow function with CTRL_COMBOBOX as the control class name.

Types and Styles of Combo Box

Simple Combo Box, Pull-Down Combo Box, and Spin Combo Box

A simple combo box can be created with the style of CBS_SIMPLE. The list box of a simple combo box will always be shown below the edit box. When the user selects an item in the list box, the text of this item will fill the edit box, as shown in Figure 1.

alt

Figure 1 Simple combo box control

A pull-down combo box can be created with the style of CBS_DROPDOWNLIST. The pull-down combo box is different from the simple combo box in that the combo box only shows an item in the rectangle region, and an icon pointing downwards presents on the right of the item content. When the user clicks the icon, a list box will be popped up to show more items. Figure 2 shows the effect of the pull-down combo boxes in normal state and pull-down state.

alt

Figure 2 Pull-down combo box control

When calling CreateWindow function to create the simple combo box and pull-down combo box, you should use dwAddData argument of CreateWindow to pass the height value of the list box, as shown in following:

  hwnd4 = CreateWindow (CTRL_COMBOBOX,
            "0",
            WS_VISIBLE | CBS_SIMPLE | CBS_SORT | WS_TABSTOP,
            IDC_BOX4,
            10, 100, 180, 24,
            parent, 100);
/* Specify dwAddData to be 100, that is, specify the height of
 * the list box in the simple combo box to be 100
 */

Although behaviors of a spin combo box control differs much from that of the two types of combo boxes above, it is in nature still combination of an edit box and a list box, except that the list box in a spin combo box is always hidden, and we can select an item in the list box by the two arrow buttons beside the edit box. The spin combo box can be created with CBS_SPINLIST style, and its effect is shown in Figure 3.

alt

Figure 3 Spin combo box

Spin combo box also has two special display styles (as shown in Figure 4):

alt

Figure 4 The special styles of spin combo box

As the three types of combo boxes described above use the edit box and the list box predefined in MiniGUI, you can use similar styles of the edit box control and the list box control for the combo boxes:

  • CBS_READONLY: The input field is read-only, corresponding to the ES_READONLY style of edit box.

  • CBS_UPPERCASE: Corresponding to the ES_UPPERCASE style of the edit box, making the text typed in the edit box transferring into uppercase automatically.

  • CBS_LOWERCASE: Corresponding to the ES_LOWERCASE style of the edit box, making the text typed in the edit box transferring into lowercase automatically.

  • CBS_EDITBASELINE: Corresponding to the ES_BASELINE style of the edit box, making the edit box have a base line.

  • CBS_SORT: Corresponding to the LBS_SORT style of the list box, combo box with this style will automatically sort the inserted items.

NOTE A list box can have other advanced styles, but the list box in a combo box is only a normal single-selection list box.

Except the styles described above, the combo box also defines the following two styles, which can be used for all types of combo box:

  • CBS_EDITNOBORDER: Make the edit box have no WS_BORDER style, and make the input field have no border.

  • CBS_AUTOFOCUS: The edit box will gain the input focus automatically when the combo box gains the input focus.

Digital Spin Box

A digital spin box is similar to a spin combo box in appearance, wherein digits are displayed instead of item of a list box. A combo box of this type can be used in many situations. However, because the operated object is digit instead of arbitrary text, it does not use a list box internally. The digital spin box can be created with combo box style CBS_AUTOSPIN, which is as shown in Figure 5.

alt

Figure 5 Digital spin box

The digital spin box has only a style, i.e. CBS_AUTOLOOP. The digit in the box will be looped automatically when this style has been used. That is to say, after the user has clicked the up arrow to the maximum value, the digit in the box will change to the minimum value if the up arrow is clicked again. The minimum and maximum values of the digital spin box are 0 and 100 by default, respectively. Each time the user clicks the button on the right side, the digit-changed step is 1 by default.

The default max and min value are 100 and 0; the default step value when click the button is 1 and the default step of click pagedown or pageup is 5.

Messages of Combo Box

Messages of Simple, Pull-Down, and Spin Combo Box

Because the three types of combo boxes all include list box, messages used for these three types of combo boxes basically correspond to the messages of a list box:

  • CB_ADDSTRING: Correspond to LB_ADDSTRING, used for adding items to the inner list box.

  • CB_INSERTSTRING: Correspond to LB_INSERTSTRING, used for inserting items to the inner list box.

  • CB_DELETESTRING: Correspond to LB_DELETESTRING, used for deleting items from the inner list box.

  • CB_FINDSTRING: Correspond to LB_FINDSTRING, used for fuzzily matching items of the list box.

  • CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT: Correspond to LB_FINDSTRINGEXACT, used for exactly matching items of the list box.

  • CB_GETCOUNT: Correspond to LB_GETCOUNT, used for getting the number of items in the inner list box.

  • CB_GETCURSEL: Correspond to LB_GETCURSEL, used for getting the currently selected item of the inner list box.

  • CB_SETCURSEL: Correspond to LB_SETCURSEL, used for setting the selected item of the inner list box.

  • CB_RESETCONTENT: Correspond to LB_RESETCONTENT, used for removing the contents of the inner list box.

  • CB_GETITEMADDDATA: Correspond to LB_GETITEMADDDATA, used for getting the additional data associated with an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_SETITEMADDDATA: Correspond to LB_SETITEMADDDATA, used for setting the additional data associated with an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_GETITEMHEIGHT: Correspond to LB_GETITEMHEIGHT, used for getting the height of an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_SETITEMHEIGHT: Correspond to LB_SETITEMHEIGHT, used for setting the height of an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_SETSTRCMPFUNC: Correspond to LB_SETSTRCMPFUNC, used for setting the string comparing function for sorting items of the inner list box.

  • CB_GETLBTEXT: Correspond to LB_GETTEXT, used for getting the text of an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_GETLBTEXTLEN: Correspond to LB_GETTEXTLEN, used for getting the length of text of an item of the inner list box.

  • CB_GETCHILDREN: Gets the handles to the children of ComboBox control. The parameter wParam holds a editor pointer and lParam holds a list box pointer.

Combo box also provides the message for the inner edit box:

  • CB_LIMITTEXT: Correspond to EM_LIMITTEXT, used for limiting the length of text in the inner edit box.

  • CB_SETEDITSEL: Correspond to EM_SETSEL, set the selected text in the editor.

  • CB_GETEDITSEL: Correspond to EM_GETSEL, get the selected text in the editor.

You can refer to the description on the list box message and the edit box message in Chapter 21 and Chapter 22 for the concrete use of the above messages. The following two messages can be used for a spin combo box:

  • CB_SPIN: Send the message to spin the spin box forward or backward, like the user click the up or down arrow besides the edit box (Typing the up or down arrow key in the edit box also can get the same effect). The parameter wParam controls the direction of the spin, 0 means up, 1 means down.

  • CB_FASTSPIN: Send the message to fast spin the spin box, like the user types PageUp/PageDown key in the edit box. The parameter wParam controls the direction of the spin, 0 means up, 1 means down.

Follow two message can be used for drop down combo box:

  • CB_GETDROPPEDCONTROLRECT: Get the rectangle of the drop down combo box.

  • CB_GETDROPPEDSTATE: Check the combo box's drop down list is displayed or not.

Messages of Digital Spin Box

Digital spin box can receive the following messages:

  • CB_GETSPINRANGE: Get the maximum and minimum values, which are stored in the addresses to which are pointed to by wParam and lParam, respectively.

  • CB_SETSPINRANGE: Set the maximum and minimum values, which are the values of wParam and lParam, respectively.

  • CB_SETSPINVALUE: Set the current value of the edit box, and the value to be set is passed by wParam.

  • CB_GETSPINVALUE: This message returns the current value of the edit box.

  • CB_SPIN: Send the message to spin the spin box forwards or backwards, the same as the user clicks the up or down arrow besides the edit box (Typing the up or down arrow key in the edit box also can get the same effect). The parameter wParam controls the direction of the spin: 1 means up and 0 means down.

  • CB_FASTSPIN: Send the message to spin the spin box quickly, like the user types PageUp/PageDown key in the edit box. The parameter wParam controls the spinning direction: 0 means up and 1 means down.

  • CB_GETSPINPACE: Get the pace and the fast pace of the spin box in a combo box.

  • CB_SETSPINPACE: Set the pace and the fast pace of the spin box in a combo box

  • CB_SETSPINFORMAT: Sets the format string of integer. MiniGUI uses sprintf and sscanf to transform between text string and integer, and make them have specified format. After format string is set, MiniGUI will use this format string when calling sprintf and sscanf functions to make it has a certain display format.

Notification Codes of Combo Box

Notifications can be generated when a combo box has the style CBS_NOTIFY. Notification codes of combo box notification messages are basically the combination of list box notification codes and edit box notification codes, which are listed as follow:

  • CBN_ERRSPACE: No enough memory

  • CBN_SELCHANGE: Current selection changes

  • CBN_EDITCHANGE: Text in the edit control changes

  • CBN_DBLCLK: User double clicked an item of the combo box

  • CBN_CLICKED: User clicked the combo box.

  • CBN_SETFOCUS: The combo box gains the input focus. If the combo box has CBS_AUTOFOCUS style, the inner edit box would gain the input box simultaneously.

  • CBN_KILLFOCUS: The combo box loses the input focus.

  • CBN_DROPDOWN: The user pulled down the list box. When the user clicks the down arrow button beside the edit box or type an arrow key in the edit box, such as up or down arrow key, PageDown or PageUp key etc. the list box would be pulled down and showed.

  • CBN_CLOSEUP: Pull-down list box is hidden (closed up).

  • CBN_SELENDOK: The user selects an item from the pull-down list box.

  • CBN_SELENDCANCEL: The user does not select any item and close the pull-down list box.

Sample Program

The program in List 1 gives an example of use of combo boxes. The program comprises a time selection box with digital spin box, and then provides the list of heroes to be dated with a pull-down list box. When pressing “OK”, the program uses MessageBox to display the date information. Please refer to combobox.c file of the demo program package of this guide for the complete source code of the program. Effect of running the program is shown in Figure 6.

List 1 Use of combo boxes

#include <stdio.h>

#include <minigui/common.h>
#include <minigui/minigui.h>
#include <minigui/gdi.h>
#include <minigui/window.h>
#include <minigui/control.h>

#define IDC_HOUR   100
#define IDC_MINUTE 110
#define IDC_SECOND 120
#define IDL_DAXIA  200

#define IDC_PROMPT 300

/* Define dialog box template */
static DLGTEMPLATE DlgMyDate =
{
    WS_BORDER | WS_CAPTION,
    WS_EX_NONE,
    100, 100, 304, 135,
    "约会大侠",
    0, 0,
    9, NULL,
    0
};

static CTRLDATA CtrlMyDate[] =
{
    {
        "static",
        WS_CHILD | SS_RIGHT | WS_VISIBLE,
         10, 20, 50, 20,
        IDC_STATIC,
        "我打算于",
        0
    },
/* the digital spin box to display hour */
    {
        CTRL_COMBOBOX,
        WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE |
            CBS_READONLY | CBS_AUTOSPIN | CBS_AUTOLOOP | CBS_EDITBASELINE,
        60, 18, 40, 20,
        IDC_HOUR,
        "",
        0
    },
    {
        "static",
        WS_CHILD | SS_CENTER | WS_VISIBLE,
        100, 20, 20, 20,
        IDC_STATIC,
        "时",
        0
    },
/* The digital spin box to display minute */
    {
        CTRL_COMBOBOX,
        WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE |
            CBS_READONLY | CBS_AUTOSPIN | CBS_AUTOLOOP | CBS_EDITBASELINE,
        120, 18, 40, 20,
        IDC_MINUTE,
        "",
        0
    },
    {
        "static",
        WS_CHILD | SS_CENTER | WS_VISIBLE,
        160, 20, 30, 20,
        IDC_STATIC,
        "去找",
        0
    },
/* List the names of heroes */
    {
        CTRL_COMBOBOX,
        WS_VISIBLE | CBS_DROPDOWNLIST | CBS_NOTIFY,
        190, 20, 100, 20,
        IDL_DAXIA,
        "",
        80
    },
/* Display characteristic of heroes */
    {
        "static",
        WS_CHILD | SS_RIGHT | WS_VISIBLE,
        10, 50, 280, 20,
        IDC_PROMPT,
        "This is",
        0
    },
    {
        CTRL_BUTTON,
        WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON | WS_TABSTOP | WS_GROUP,
        10, 70, 130, 25,
        IDOK,
        "确定",
        0
    },
    {
        "button",
        WS_VISIBLE | BS_PUSHBUTTON | WS_TABSTOP,
        150, 70, 130, 25,
        IDCANCEL,
        "取消",
        0
    },
};

static const char* daxia [] =
{
    "黄药师",
    "欧阳锋",
    "段皇爷",
    "洪七公",
    "周伯通",
    "郭靖",
    "黄蓉",
};

static const char* daxia_char [] =
{
    "怪僻",
    "恶毒",
    "假慈悲",
    "一身正气",
    "调皮，不负责任",
    "傻乎乎",
    "乖巧",
};

static void daxia_notif_proc (HWND hwnd, int id, int nc, DWORD add_data)
{
    if (nc == CBN_SELCHANGE) {
         /* Display corresponding characteristic according to the hero currently selected */
        int cur_sel = SendMessage (hwnd, CB_GETCURSEL, 0, 0);
        if (cur_sel >= 0) {
            SetWindowText (GetDlgItem (GetParent(hwnd), IDC_PROMPT), daxia_char [cur_sel]);
        }
    }
}

static void prompt (HWND hDlg)
{
    char date [1024];

    /* Summary the dating content */
    int hour = SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_HOUR, CB_GETSPINVALUE, 0, 0);
    int min = SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_MINUTE, CB_GETSPINVALUE, 0, 0);
    int sel = SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDL_DAXIA, CB_GETCURSEL, 0, 0);

    sprintf (date, "你打算于今日 %02d:%02d 去见那个%s的%s", hour, min,
                   daxia_char [sel], daxia [sel]);

    MessageBox (hDlg, date, "约会内容", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);
}

static int MyDateBoxProc (HWND hDlg, int message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    int i;
    switch (message) {
    case MSG_INITDIALOG:
        /* Set the range of hour spin box to be 0~23, digital is displayed with %02d format */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_HOUR, CB_SETSPINRANGE, 0, 23);
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_HOUR, CB_SETSPINFORMAT, 0, (LPARAM)"%02d");
        /* Set the current value to be 20 */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_HOUR, CB_SETSPINVALUE, 20, 0);
        /* Set the pace and fast pace both to be 1  */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_HOUR, CB_SETSPINPACE, 1, 1);

        /* Set the range of hour spin box to be 0~59, digital is displayed with %02d format */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_MINUTE, CB_SETSPINRANGE, 0, 59);
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_MINUTE, CB_SETSPINFORMAT, 0, (LPARAM)"%02d");
        /* Set the current value to be 0 */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_MINUTE, CB_SETSPINVALUE, 0, 0);
        /* Set the pace to be 1, and set the fast pace to be 2 */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDC_MINUTE, CB_SETSPINPACE, 1, 2);

         /* Add the names of heroes */
        for (i = 0; i < 7; i++) {
            SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDL_DAXIA, CB_ADDSTRING, 0, (LPARAM)daxia [i]);
        }

        /* Specify notification callback function */
        SetNotificationCallback (GetDlgItem (hDlg, IDL_DAXIA), daxia_notif_proc);
         /* Set initial values of names and characteristics of heroes */
        SendDlgItemMessage(hDlg, IDL_DAXIA, CB_SETCURSEL, 0, 0);
        SetWindowText (GetDlgItem (hDlg, IDC_PROMPT), daxia_char [0]);
        return 1;

    case MSG_COMMAND:
        switch (wParam) {
        case IDOK:
            /* Display the current selection */
            prompt (hDlg);
        case IDCANCEL:
            EndDialog (hDlg, wParam);
            break;
        }
        break;

    }

    return DefaultDialogProc (hDlg, message, wParam, lParam);
}

int MiniGUIMain (int argc, const char* argv[])
{
#ifdef _ MGRM_PROCESSES
    JoinLayer(NAME_DEF_LAYER , "combobox" , 0 , 0);
#endif

    DlgMyDate.controls = CtrlMyDate;

    DialogBoxIndirectParam (&DlgMyDate, HWND_DESKTOP, MyDateBoxProc, 0L);

    return 0;
}

#ifndef _ MGRM_PROCESSES
#include <minigui/dti.c>
#endif
alt

Figure 6 Use of combo boxes

<< Edit Box Control | Table of Contents | Menu Button Control >>

PreviousEdit Box ControlNextMenu Button Control

Last updated