How to filter PyQt QCombobox elements based on text input?

Question

I need a QCombox whose elements are filtered based on text input. If I installed QCombobox for editing, the user can paste the text and QCompleter will be automatically created. But the elements are not filtered, and I do not want the user to add new elements.

Is it possible to add this functionality to QCombobox?

Answer 1

Try this code, this is what I used in my project

import sys from PyQt4.QtGui import QComboBox, QApplication, QCompleter, QSortFilterProxyModel, QStandardItemModel, QStandardItem from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt class ExtendedCombo( QComboBox ): def __init__( self, parent = None): super( ExtendedCombo, self ).__init__( parent ) self.setFocusPolicy( Qt.StrongFocus ) self.setEditable( True ) self.completer = QCompleter( self ) # always show all completions self.completer.setCompletionMode( QCompleter.UnfilteredPopupCompletion ) self.pFilterModel = QSortFilterProxyModel( self ) self.pFilterModel.setFilterCaseSensitivity( Qt.CaseInsensitive ) self.completer.setPopup( self.view() ) self.setCompleter( self.completer ) self.lineEdit().textEdited[unicode].connect( self.pFilterModel.setFilterFixedString ) self.completer.activated.connect(self.setTextIfCompleterIsClicked) def setModel( self, model ): super(ExtendedCombo, self).setModel( model ) self.pFilterModel.setSourceModel( model ) self.completer.setModel(self.pFilterModel) def setModelColumn( self, column ): self.completer.setCompletionColumn( column ) self.pFilterModel.setFilterKeyColumn( column ) super(ExtendedCombo, self).setModelColumn( column ) def view( self ): return self.completer.popup() def index( self ): return self.currentIndex() def setTextIfCompleterIsClicked(self, text): if text: index = self.findText(text) self.setCurrentIndex(index) if __name__ == "__main__": app = QApplication(sys.argv) model = QStandardItemModel() for i,word in enumerate( ['hola', 'adios', 'hello', 'good bye'] ): item = QStandardItem(word) model.setItem(i, 0, item) combo = ExtendedCombo() combo.setModel(model) combo.setModelColumn(0) combo.show() sys.exit(app.exec_()) 

Answer 2

Thanks for the good answer, I had the same problem. It works well, but it forces you to supply an external model that is not needed. I have expanded the code to work with the internal standard model already supplied with combobox. Some cleaning and documentation was also done ...

 #!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt from PyQt4.QtGui import QCompleter, QComboBox, QSortFilterProxyModel class ExtendedComboBox(QComboBox): def __init__(self, parent=None): super(ExtendedComboBox, self).__init__(parent) self.setFocusPolicy(Qt.StrongFocus) self.setEditable(True) # add a filter model to filter matching items self.pFilterModel = QSortFilterProxyModel(self) self.pFilterModel.setFilterCaseSensitivity(Qt.CaseInsensitive) self.pFilterModel.setSourceModel(self.model()) # add a completer, which uses the filter model self.completer = QCompleter(self.pFilterModel, self) # always show all (filtered) completions self.completer.setCompletionMode(QCompleter.UnfilteredPopupCompletion) self.setCompleter(self.completer) # connect signals self.lineEdit().textEdited[unicode].connect(self.pFilterModel.setFilterFixedString) self.completer.activated.connect(self.on_completer_activated) # on selection of an item from the completer, select the corresponding item from combobox def on_completer_activated(self, text): if text: index = self.findText(text) self.setCurrentIndex(index) # on model change, update the models of the filter and completer as well def setModel(self, model): super(ExtendedComboBox, self).setModel(model) self.pFilterModel.setSourceModel(model) self.completer.setModel(self.pFilterModel) # on model column change, update the model column of the filter and completer as well def setModelColumn(self, column): self.completer.setCompletionColumn(column) self.pFilterModel.setFilterKeyColumn(column) super(ExtendedComboBox, self).setModelColumn(column) if __name__ == "__main__": import sys from PyQt4.QtGui import QStringListModel, QApplication app = QApplication(sys.argv) string_list = ['hola muchachos', 'adios amigos', 'hello world', 'good bye'] combo = ExtendedComboBox() # either fill the standard model of the combobox combo.addItems(string_list) # or use another model #combo.setModel(QStringListModel(string_list)) combo.resize(300, 40) combo.show() sys.exit(app.exec_()) 

Answer 3

Both published answers are correct, however, they have a small error in which filtering options in the combobox by entering and then clicking on a selection does not trigger an activation signal. You can fix this by placing self.activated[str].emit(self.itemText(index)) in on_completer_activated , in the line after self.setCurrentIndex(index) .

This activates the activated signal when you select an item from the add-on that contains the name of the item that was clicked.