Getting started with React AutoComplete component

22 Jul 20266 minutes to read

This section explains the steps required to create a simple React AutoComplete component and demonstrate its basic usage in a React environment.

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To get started quickly with React AutoComplete, you can watch this video:

Prerequisites

System requirements for Syncfusion® React UI components

Set up the Vite project

To create a new Vite project, use one of the commands that are specific to either NPM or Yarn.

npm create vite@latest my-project -- --template react
yarn create vite my-project --template react

After running the command, you will be prompted with a series of interactive questions to configure your project. Select the appropriate options for each prompt:

  1. Select a linter to use: Choose the linter for your project (for example, ESLint).
  2. Install with npm and start now?: Type Yes to proceed with installing the dependencies and automatically start the development server, or No to install dependencies manually later.

Navigate into the project directory with:

cd my-project

Add Syncfusion® React packages

Syncfusion® React component packages are available at npmjs.com. To use Syncfusion® React components in the project, install the corresponding npm package.

To install the React component package, use the following command:

npm install @syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns
yarn add @syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns

Import Syncfusion® CSS styles

Themes for Syncfusion® React components can be applied using CSS or SASS files from the npm theme packages, CDN, CRG, or Theme Studio. For more information, see the themes documentation.

This guide uses the Tailwind 3 theme as an example, sourced from the theme package. In this package, each component includes an index.css file that automatically loads all the required dependency styles. To install the Tailwind 3 theme package, use the following command:

npm install @syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme
yarn add @syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme

By default, Vite projects include a src/index.css file with default styles. These default styles may conflict with Syncfusion component styles. Clear all content from the src/index.css file to prevent style conflicts.

The required styles for the AutoComplete component are imported in the src/App.css file:

@import "@syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme/styles/auto-complete/index.css";

You can also refer to the combined CSS file for all Syncfusion components in your application. For more information, see the documentation on referring themes through npm packages.

Add the AutoComplete component

Now, you can add the React AutoComplete component to your src/App.jsx file by importing and defining it within your application. Then, populate the AutoComplete with data using the dataSource property, which accepts an array of string values to display as suggestions. Use the following code:

import { AutoCompleteComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import './App.css';

function App() {
    // define the array of data
    const sportsData = ['Badminton', 'Basketball', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Gymnastics', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    return (
        // specifies the tag for rendering the AutoComplete component
        <AutoCompleteComponent id="atcelement" dataSource={sportsData} placeholder="Find a game" />
    );
}

export default App;

Run the application

Run the npm run dev command in the terminal to start the development server. This command compiles your code and serves the application locally, opening it in the browser.

npm run dev

The output will appear as follows:

import { AutoCompleteComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
function App() {
    // define the array of data
    const sportsData = ['Badminton', 'Basketball', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Gymnastics', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the AutoComplete component
    <AutoCompleteComponent id="atcelement" dataSource={sportsData} placeholder="Find a game"/>);
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { AutoCompleteComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

function App() {
  // define the array of data
    const sportsData: string[] = ['Badminton', 'Basketball', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Gymnastics', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the AutoComplete component
        <AutoCompleteComponent id="atcelement" dataSource={sportsData}  placeholder="Find a game" />
    );
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Refer to the React AutoComplete feature tour page for its groundbreaking feature representations. You can also explore our React AutoComplete component example that shows how to render the AutoComplete in React.

See Also