ComboBox Overview

The Blazor ComboBox component allows the user to choose an option from a predefined set of choices presented in a dropdown popup. You can also allow them to enter custom values and to filter the available items. You can control the data, sizes, and various appearance options like class and templates.

The ComboBox component is part of Telerik UI for Blazor, a professional grade UI library with 60+ native components for building modern and feature-rich applications. To try it out sign up for a free 30-day trial.

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To use a Telerik ComboBox for Blazor

1. add the TelerikComboBox tag
2. populate its Data property with the collection of items you want in the dropdown
3. set the TextField and ValueField properties to point to the corresponding names of the model
4. (optional) set the Value property to the initial value of the model.
5. (optional) enable features like filtering and clear button

Combobox data binding, two-way value binding and main features

Selected value: @selectedValue
<br />

<TelerikComboBox Data="@myComboData" TextField="MyTextField" ValueField="MyValueField" @bind-Value="selectedValue"
                 Placeholder="Select an item..." ClearButton="true" Filterable="true">
</TelerikComboBox>

@code {
    IEnumerable<MyDdlModel> myComboData = Enumerable.Range(1, 20).Select(x => new MyDdlModel { MyTextField = "item " + x, MyValueField = x });

    int selectedValue { get; set; } = 3; //usually the current value should come from the model data

    //in a real case, the model is usually in a separate file
    //the model type and value field type must be provided to the dropdpownlist
    public class MyDdlModel
    {
        public int MyValueField { get; set; }
        public string MyTextField { get; set; }
    }
}

The result from the code snippet above

Component namespace and reference

The ComboBox is a generic component and its type is determined by the type of the model you pass to it, and the type of its value field. You can find examples in the Data Bind - Considerations article.

Features

The ComboBox provides the following features:

• AllowCustom - whether the user can enter custom values. If enabled, the ValueField must be a string.

• Class - the CSS class that will be rendered on the main wrapping element of the combobox.

• ClearButton - whether the user will have the option to clear the selected value. When it is clicked, the Value will be updated to default(TValue), so there must be no item in the Data that has such a Value. For example, if TValue is int, clearing the value will lead to a 0 Value, so if there is an Item with 0 in its ValueField - issues may arise with its selection. This feature can often go together with AllowCustom.

• Data - allows you to provide the data source. Required.

• Enabled - whether the component is enabled.

• Filterable - whether filtering is enabled for the end user.

• FilterOperator - the method of filtering the items. Defaults to StartsWith.

• Id - renders as the id attribute on the <input /> element, so you can attach a <label for=""> to the input.

• Placeholder - the text the user sees as a hint when no item is selected (the Value is null or an empty string).

• PopupHeight - the height of the expanded dropdown list element.

• PopupWidth - the width of the expanded dropdown list element. If you don't specify a value, the dropdown width will match the main element which can help with responsive layouts and 100% widths.

• TItem - the type of the model to which the component is bound. Required if you can't provide Data or Value. Determines the type of the reference object.

• TValue - the type of the value field from the model to which the component is bound. Required if you can't provide Data or Value. Determines the type of the reference object.

• TextField - the name of the field from the model that will be shown to the user. Defaults to Text.

• ValueField - the name of the field from the model that will be the underlying value. Defaults to Value.

• Value and bind-Value- get/set the value of the component, can be used for binding. If you set it to a value allowed by the model class value field, the corresponding item from the data collection will be pre-selected. Use the bind-Value syntax for two-way binding, for example, to a variable of your own.

  The Value and ValueField can be of types:

  • number (such as int, double and so on)
  • string
  • Guid
  • Enum

• Width - the width of the dropdown and the main element. By default this parameter is set to 300px. In case you would like it to fit to a container you could set it in 100% or other percent value depending on the application needs.

• Templates - they allow you to control the rendering of items in the component. See the Templates article for more details.

• Validation - see the Input Validation article for more details.

Selected Item

By default, if no Value is provided, the ComboBox will appear empty, or will display the Placeholder defined. If a Value is provided and AllowCustom is not set to true, the Value should match an item in the data source (see more in the Value Out of Range section).

The ComboBox will not always have a selected item, however, because it can act as an input. There will be no selected item in the following cases that depend on the settings of the component that the developer can control:

• the user clears the value through the Clear button,
• the user clears the value with Backspace or Del keys,
• AllowCustom="false" - when a custom value is typed, the ComboBox input value will be automatically cleared on the change event (blur of the input or Enter keypress). See the table below.
• AllowCustom="true" - when the user starts typing a custom value.

Missing selection is most common when the initial value is null as data sources rarely have items with a null value, and/or when you want to let your users type in values that are not in your predefined set of options.

If the user types text in the input, selection behaves according to the following table:

User input matches	AllowCustom=true	AllowCustom=false
The TextField of an item	Matched item is selected. The Value is taken from the item.	Matched item is selected. The Value is taken from the item.
The ValueField of an item	No item is selected. Value is updated to the custom one.	No item is selected. Value is updated to default(typeof(Value)). The OnChange event does not fire for the value clearing.
No match	No item is selected. Value is updated to the custom one.	No item is selected. Value is updated to default(typeof(Value)). The OnChange event does not fire for the value clearing.

If you are looking for more fields from the view-model that describes the dropdown items, not just the Value, see the Get model from dropodwn KB article and the OnChange event.

You may also want to review/join the discussion and Vote for this request: Binding DropDownList Value to complex model

See Also

• Data Binding
• Live Demo: ComboBox
• Live Demo: ComboBox Validation
• API Reference