Combo box

A combo box is a user interface control (widget) in a graphical user interface that is a combination of a single-line textbox and a menu. It is also commonly referred to as a drop down box, drop down list, or listbox. When the combo box is inactive, it shows only its textbox aspect (see image, right), which bears the current value of the control, and (usually) some mechanism to show the rest of the choices is also showing (the black downwards arrowhead on the gray button in the first image on the right). In most combo boxes, it is not necessary to click a specific region (e.g. the arrow) to make the rest of the choices appear — clicking anywhere within the control will activate the list.

Related Topics:
Widget - Graphical user interface - Textbox - Menu - Button

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The list of values may be longer than would be reasonable to display all at once. If this is the case, a scrollbar is visible in the list component. A combo box always forms a scrollbar for this purpose; there are other, similar controls identical to combo boxes in nearly all respects except this (see #Similar Controls, below).

Related Topics:
Scrollbar - #Similar Controls

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