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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T21:46:02+00:00

I have a form in Excel with a combo box control. I want the

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I have a form in Excel with a combo box control. I want the values to be filled from a database table when the combo box is opened using what has already been typed in as a LIKE criteria. This is the code I have so far for the DropButtonClick event to achieve this.

Private Sub cboVariety_DropButtonClick()
    Static search_text As String
    Static is_open As Boolean
    Dim rs As New Recordset

    If is_open Then
        is_open = False
        Exit Sub
    End If
    is_open = True

    If search_text = cboVariety Then Exit Sub
    search_text = cboVariety

    cboVariety.Clear
    cboVariety.AddItem search_text
    If Len(search_text) > 2 Then
        rs.Open _
            "SELECT Name FROM tbl_Varieties " & _
            "WHERE Name LIKE '%" & search_text & "%' " & _
            "ORDER BY Name", connect_string, adOpenStatic
        Do Until rs.EOF
            If rs!Name <> search_text Then cboVariety.AddItem rs!Name
            rs.MoveNext
        Loop
        rs.Close
    End If
End Sub

The problem is that the DropButtonClick event fires both when the combo box is opened and when it is closed. If this sub executes when the combo box is closing, the code that clears the combo box causes the user’s selection to be erased.

I’m trying to tell when the box is closed using the is_open variable, which alternates between true and false each time the event sub is executed. This seems like a brittle solution to the problem. Is there a better way?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I found a simple way to solve this. It doesn’t seem like it should work, but if I just reassign the value of the combo box after rebuilding the list, it doesn’t discard the value that is selected.

    Private Sub cboVariety_DropButtonClick()
    Static search_text As String
    Dim rs As New Recordset

    If search_text = cboVariety Then Exit Sub
    search_text = cboVariety

    cboVariety.Clear
    If Len(search_text) > 2 Then
        rs.Open _
            "SELECT Name FROM tbl_Varieties " & _
            "WHERE Name LIKE '%" & search_text & "%' " & _
            "ORDER BY Name", connect_string, adOpenStatic
        Do Until rs.EOF
            cboVariety.AddItem rs!Name
            rs.MoveNext
        Loop
        rs.Close
    End If

    '' Reassign cboVariety in case this event was triggered by combo close
    cboVariety = search_text
End Sub
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