Example of React Native AutoComplete Input

React Native AutoComplete

This is an example of React Native AutoComplete Input. To make an AutoComplete Input we will use Autocomplete component provided by react-native-autocomplete-input.

If you want to show some suggestions to the user while entering the value in an Input you can use AutoComplete Input, to show the hint you have to provide the data as a list or an array to the Autocomplete Input.

Autocomplete Input

<Autocomplete
  autoCapitalize="none"
  autoCorrect={false}
  containerStyle={styles.autocompleteContainer}
  //data to show in suggestion
  data={filteredFilms}
  //default value if you want to set something in input
  defaultValue={
    JSON.stringify(selectedValue) === '{}' ?
    '' :
    selectedValue.title
  }
  // onchange of the text changing the state of the query
  // which will trigger the findFilm method
  // to show the suggestions
  onChangeText={(text) => findFilm(text)}
  placeholder="Enter the film title"
  renderItem={({item}) => (
    //you can change the view you want to show in suggestions
    <TouchableOpacity
        onPress={() => {
        setSelectedValue(item);
        setFilteredFilms([]);
        }}>
        <Text style={styles.itemText}>
            {item.title}
        </Text>
    </TouchableOpacity>
  )}
/>

In this example, we will make an Autocomplete Input which will show the suggestions of the movie’s name if we start typing something. So Let’s get started.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependency

To use Autocomplete component you need to install react-native-autocomplete-input package. To install this

Open the terminal and jump into your project using

cd ProjectName

Run the following command

npm install react-native-autocomplete-input --save

This command will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory. –save is optional, it is just to update the react-native-autocomplete-input dependency in your package.json file.

Code for AutoComplete Input/ AutoSuggestion Input

Now Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// Example of React Native AutoComplete Input
// https://aboutreact.com/example-of-react-native-autocomplete-input/

// Import React in our code
import React, {useState, useEffect} from 'react';

// Import all the components we are going to use
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  TouchableOpacity,
  View,
} from 'react-native';

// Import Autocomplete component
import Autocomplete from 'react-native-autocomplete-input';

const App = () => {
  // For Main Data
  const [films, setFilms] = useState([]);
  // For Filtered Data
  const [filteredFilms, setFilteredFilms] = useState([]);
  // For Selected Data
  const [selectedValue, setSelectedValue] = useState({});

  useEffect(() => {
    fetch('https://abooutreactapis.000webhostapp.com/getpost.php?offset=1')
      .then((res) => res.json())
      .then((json) => {
        const {results: films} = json;
        setFilms(films);
        //setting the data in the films state
      })
      .catch((e) => {
        alert(e);
      });
  }, []);

  const findFilm = (query) => {
    // Method called every time when we change the value of the input
    if (query) {
      // Making a case insensitive regular expression
      const regex = new RegExp(`${query.trim()}`, 'i');
      // Setting the filtered film array according the query
      setFilteredFilms(
          films.filter((film) => film.title.search(regex) >= 0)
      );
    } else {
      // If the query is null then return blank
      setFilteredFilms([]);
    }
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Autocomplete
          autoCapitalize="none"
          autoCorrect={false}
          containerStyle={styles.autocompleteContainer}
          // Data to show in suggestion
          data={filteredFilms}
          // Default value if you want to set something in input
          defaultValue={
            JSON.stringify(selectedValue) === '{}' ?
            '' :
            selectedValue.title
          }
          // Onchange of the text changing the state of the query
          // Which will trigger the findFilm method
          // To show the suggestions
          onChangeText={(text) => findFilm(text)}
          placeholder="Enter the film title"
          renderItem={({item}) => (
            // For the suggestion view
            <TouchableOpacity
              onPress={() => {
                setSelectedValue(item);
                setFilteredFilms([]);
              }}>
              <Text style={styles.itemText}>
                  {item.title}
              </Text>
            </TouchableOpacity>
          )}
        />
        <View style={styles.descriptionContainer}>
          {films.length > 0 ? (
            <>
              <Text style={styles.infoText}>
                   Selected Data
              </Text>
              <Text style={styles.infoText}>
                {JSON.stringify(selectedValue)}
              </Text>
            </>
          ) : (
            <Text style={styles.infoText}>
                Enter The Film Title
            </Text>
          )}
        </View>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    backgroundColor: '#F5FCFF',
    flex: 1,
    padding: 16,
    marginTop: 40,
  },
  autocompleteContainer: {
    backgroundColor: '#ffffff',
    borderWidth: 0,
  },
  descriptionContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  itemText: {
    fontSize: 15,
    paddingTop: 5,
    paddingBottom: 5,
    margin: 2,
  },
  infoText: {
    textAlign: 'center',
    fontSize: 16,
  },
});
export default App;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

            

Output in Online Emulator

That was the example of React Native AutoComplete Input. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂

22 thoughts on “Example of React Native AutoComplete Input”

      • Thanks for your response, I found the reason , actually it’s working with autocomplete library version 3.6.0 but it has some issue with latest version of 4.0.+. I downgraded the library and its working now.

        Reply
  1. “react-native-autocomplete-input”: “^4.1.0”

    Show only () in overlay instead of movie names. Also on click of any of (), shows error undefined is not an object (evaluating ‘query.trim’)

    Reply
  2. Thanks Snehal for your reply.
    Somehow I got the overlay with list items properly in 4.1.0, but on click of it the overlay is not getting removed automatically. Any thoughts ?

    I am new to react native, I tried downgrading the version of autocomplete-input to 3.6.0 by changing in package.json. But it is not working. Looks like I am missing something.

    Reply
  3. hi, everything is working fine. but style is not working . I tried modifying both inputContainerStyle and containerStyle.

    i wanted a textbox style with just ” borderBottomWidth: 1 “, can you please let me know how to modify the “Autocomplete” textBox style.

    Thanks,

    Reply
  4. Hi I used it but the suggestion box is not floating over other inputs whereas it is pushing down other inputs to make a place for it self. Even I tried with position absolute and made it float then it is not clickable anymore

    Reply
  5. Hi, everything works fine but Autocomplete pushes down other components. For example, I have a “Add” button right besides it and the list with suggestions pushes it down to the middle of the screen.

    I’ve already tried to separate Autocomplete and the Button with fragments and tried to set autocompleteContainer to Absolute but that does not solves my problem.

    Thanks

    Reply
  6. Hi,
    I am getting the error like this

    Error: Objects are not valid as a React child (found: object with keys {userId, id, title, completed}). If you meant to render a collection of children, use an array instead.

    could you help me to fix the issue

    thanks

    Reply

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