Getting Started with WinForms AutoCompleteBox

This article shows how you can start using RadAutoCompleteBox.

RELATED VIDEOS
Getting Started with RadAutoCompleteBox for WinForms RadAutoCompleteBox allows the end-user to easily fill-in text thanks to auto-complete functionality and tokens of text. This behavior is similar to the “To” field of Outlook and Facebook where you are filling-in the recipients to which you are going to send a new message.

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

To use RadAutoCompleteBox when working with NuGet packages, install the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package. The package target framework version may vary.

Read more about NuGet installation in the Install using NuGet Packages article.

With the 2025 Q1 release, the Telerik UI for WinForms has a new licensing mechanism. You can learn more about it here.

Adding Assembly References Manually

When dragging and dropping a control from the Visual Studio (VS) Toolbox onto the Form Designer, VS automatically adds the necessary assemblies. However, if you're adding the control programmatically, you'll need to manually reference the following assemblies:

• Telerik.Licensing.Runtime
• Telerik.WinControls
• Telerik.WinControls.UI
• TelerikCommon

The Telerik UI for WinForms assemblies can be install by using one of the available installation approaches.

Defining the RadAutoCompleteBox

The RadAutoCompleteBox allows your users to select multiple items from a predefined list, using auto completion as they type. You may have seen a similar type of text entry when filling in the recipient’s field, while sending messages on Facebook. RadAutoCompleteBox inherits all features of RadTextBoxControl.

Each tokenized text block is separated by character, specified by the Delimiter property. You can change the Delimiter at any time.

The code below sets text in the control at run time:

private void SetText()
{
    this.radAutoCompleteBox1.Text = "Germany;USA;Brazil;Bulgaria;Croatia;Serbia;";
}

Private Sub SetText()
    Me.RadAutoCompleteBox1.Text = "Germany;USA;Brazil;Bulgaria;Croatia;Serbia;"
End Sub

Figure 1: Set the text of RadAutoCompleteBox.

You can determine the visibility of the remove button by changing the ShowRemoveButton property:

this.radAutoCompleteBox1.ShowRemoveButton = false;

Me.RadAutoCompleteBox1.ShowRemoveButton = False

Figure 2: The Tokenized items are not showing the close button.

See Also

• Caret Positioning and Selection
• Creating Custom Blocks
• Element Structure and Document Object Model
• Properties and Events
• Text Editing
• Auto-Complete

Telerik UI for WinForms Learning Resources

• Telerik UI for WinForms AutoCompleteBox Component
• Getting Started with Telerik UI for WinForms Components
• Telerik UI for WinForms Setup
• Telerik UI for WinForms Application Modernization
• Telerik UI for WinForms Visual Studio Templates
• Deploy Telerik UI for WinForms Applications
• Telerik UI for WinForms Virtual Classroom(Training Courses for Registered Users)
• Telerik UI for WinForms License Agreement)