Show combobox when ANY text is entered into a textfield

[prsaddict]

Howdy! I've spent several hours working on this, but haven't been able to land the solution. I hope your expertise can point me in the right direction!

I have a continuous form that has an optional search that uses a combobox. My goal is for the combobox to remain hidden until ANY text is entered into the textbox.

The best I can do right now is using the textbox's AfterUpdate event to trigger the if/then code that displays the combobox. I've got this working, but it's frustrating, because I have to "update" the textbox by either tabbing out or hitting "enter". I really want the combobox to appear as soon as I begin typing text into the textbox.

To complicate it a step further, by design I want the combobox to disappear when the textbox is cleared.

Here's the current state of my code. Note that "OmniSearch" refers to the textbox, and "lst_Leaders" is the combobox.

Private Sub Omnisearch_AfterUpdate()
Call Form_Current


End Sub

Private Sub Form_Current
If IsNull(Me.OmniSearch) Then
Me.lst_Leaders.Visible = False
Else
Me.lst_Leaders.Visible = True
End If
End Sub

Using this code works only after the textfield is updated (hence the AfterUpdate sub), but I can't for the life of me figure out how to accomplish this by only entering text into the textfield (without tabbing away or pressing enter).

I tried using the On Change event procedure, but I couldn't get it working. I believe this is because the content of the textbox directly affects the content of the combobox, and I read on MS website that this can cause conflicts.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks so much.

[pbaldy]

The change event would be the place to do what you want, but you have to use the Text property:

Me.OmniSearch.Text

[prsaddict]

Beautiful! Thank you so much, pbaldy. You were spot on!

I moved the code to the change event and added the .text property. The combobox is now appearing as soon as text is entered.

The downside now is, if I enter text and then clear it (with escape or backspace), the combobox doesn't hide. I'm looking into this now. If you have any quick tip, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks again for your quick and accurate feedback!

[pbaldy]

You need to test for both Null and zero length string. One way:

If Len(Me.OmniSearch.Text & vbNullString) = 0 Then

[prsaddict]

You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man.
Done and done.

[pbaldy]

LOL! I've been called a lot of things; that's a new one.

Happy to help, and welcome to the site by the way!

[beesee]

Thanks prsaddict for this post, and the answers by pbaldy. This helps me greatly on a filter form I am designing.

[pbaldy]

Glad it helped you!