Incremental Search

• May 23, 2025
• 2 minutes to read

You can enable the incremental search for the following controls.

• ListBoxEdit
• ComboBoxEdit
• LookUpEdit
• FontEdit

Incremental search allows users to locate list items. Matching values are highlighted in real time as a user types search criteria. The following image demonstrates a ListBoxEdit that highlights items that match the search criteria when incremental search is enabled:

Users can change criteria within a short time frame. After that, any new input is treated as separate criteria. You can adjust this delay using the following static fields:

• ListBoxEdit.TextSearchTimeOut - affects ListBoxEdit editors;
• LookUpEditBase.TextSearchTimeOut - affects ComboBoxEdit, LookUpEdit, and FontEdit.

Note

Incremental search is case-insensitive.

The following keyboard shortcuts allow end-users to navigate search results.

Keyboard shortcut	Action
Ctrl + Down Arrow	Move focus to the next matching item.
Ctrl + Up Arrow	Move focus to the previous matching item.
Esc	End incremental search.

ListBoxEdit Incremental Search

To enable the incremental search feature for ListBoxEdit, set the ListBoxEdit.IncrementalSearch property to true.

The following example demonstrates ListBoxEdit with the incremental search feature enabled:

XAML

<dxe:ListBoxEdit ItemsSource="{Binding Data}" DisplayMember="Name" IncrementalSearch="True" />

Drop-down Editors Incremental Search

Drop-down editors, such as ComboBoxEdit, LookUpEdit, and FontEdit require additional incremental search configuration.

To enable the incremental search feature for a drop-down editor, do the following:

• Set the LookUpEditBase.IncrementalSearch property to true.
• Set the ButtonEdit.IsTextEditable property to false.
• Set the LookUpEditBase.AutoComplete property to true.

The following example demonstrates ComboBoxEdit with the incremental search feature enabled.

XAML

<dxe:ComboBoxEdit ItemsSource="{Binding Data}" 
                  DisplayMember="Name" 
                  IncrementalSearch="True"
                  IsTextEditable="False" AutoComplete="True" />

Note

To enable the incremental search for LookUpEdit and ComboBoxEdit editors in token operation mode, set the PopupBaseEdit.FocusPopupOnOpen property to true.

The following example demonstrates a token combo box editor with incremental search enabled.

XAML

<dxe:ComboBoxEdit ItemsSource="{Binding Data}" DisplayMember="Name" IncrementalSearch="True"
                  IsTextEditable="False" AutoComplete="True" FocusPopupOnOpen="True">
    <dxe:ComboBoxEdit.StyleSettings>
        <dxe:TokenComboBoxStyleSettings/>
    </dxe:ComboBoxEdit.StyleSettings>
</dxe:ComboBoxEdit>