Getting Started

28 Jun 202519 minutes to read

This section explains how to create a simple ComboBox component and configure its available functionalities in React.

To get start quickly with React ComboBox, you can check on this video:

Dependencies

The following list of dependencies are required to use the ComboBox component in your application.

|-- @syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-data
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-react-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns
        |-- @syncfusion/ej2-lists
        |-- @syncfusion/ej2-inputs
        |-- @syncfusion/ej2-navigations
        |-- @syncfusion/ej2-popups
            |-- @syncfusion/ej2-buttons

Installation and configuration

To easily set up a React application, use create-vite-app, which provides a faster development environment, smaller bundle sizes, and optimized builds compared to traditional tools like create-react-app. For detailed steps, refer to the Vite installation instructions. Vite sets up your environment using JavaScript and optimizes your application for production.

Note: To create a React application using create-react-app, refer to this documentation for more details.

To create a new React application, run the following command.

npm create vite@latest my-app

To set-up a React application in TypeScript environment, run the following command.

npm create vite@latest my-app -- --template react-ts
cd my-app
npm run dev

To set-up a React application in JavaScript environment, run the following command.

npm create vite@latest my-app -- --template react
cd my-app
npm run dev

Adding syncfusion® packages

All the available Essential® JS 2 packages are published in npmjs.com public registry. You can choose the component that you want to install.

To install ComboBox component, use the following command

npm install @syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns –save

Adding ComboBox component

Now, you can start adding ComboBox component in the application. For getting started, add the ComboBox component in src/App.tsx file using following code.Now place the below ComboBox code in the src/App.tsx.

[Class-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from "react-dom";

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
  public render() {
    return (
       // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id='comboelement'/>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

[Functional-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from "react-dom";

function App() {
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id='comboelement'/>
    );
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Adding CSS reference

Import the ComboBox component required CSS references as follows in src/App.css.

/* import the ComboBox dependency styles */

@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-base/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-react-inputs/styles/material.css";
@import "../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns/styles/material.css";;

Binding data source

After initialization, populate the ComboBox with data using the dataSource property. Here, an array of string values is passed to the ComboBox component.

[Class-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
  // define the array of data
  private sportsData: string[] = ['Badminton', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
  public render() {
    return (
        // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={this.sportsData} />
    );
  }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

[Functional-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } 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', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={sportsData} />
    );
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Run the application

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

npm run dev

[Class-componnet]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
export default class App extends React.Component {
    // define the array of data
    sportsData = ['Badminton', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
    render() {
        return (
        // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={this.sportsData} placeholder="Select a game"/>);
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
  // define the array of data
  private sportsData: string[] = ['Badminton', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
  public render() {
    return (
        // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={this.sportsData}  placeholder="Select a game" />
    );
  }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

[Functional-componnet]

import { ComboBoxComponent } 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', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
    <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={sportsData} placeholder="Select a game"/>);
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } 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', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Tennis'];
  return (
  // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={sportsData}  placeholder="Select a game" />
  );
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Custom values

The ComboBox allows the user to give input as custom value which is not required to present in predefined set of values. By default, this support is enabled by allowCustom property. In this case, both text field and value field considered as same. The custom value will be sent to post back handler when a form is about to be submitted.

[Class-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
export default class App extends React.Component {
    // defined the array of data
    sportsData = [
        { Id: 'game1', Game: 'Badminton' },
        { Id: 'game2', Game: 'Football' },
        { Id: 'game3', Game: 'Tennis' }
    ];
    // maps the appropriate column to fields property
    fields = { text: 'Game', value: 'Id' };
    render() {
        return (
        // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" fields={this.fields} dataSource={this.sportsData} allowCustom={true} placeholder="Select a game"/>);
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
 // defined the array of data
  private sportsData: { [key: string]: Object }[] = [
    { Id: 'game1', Game: 'Badminton' },
    { Id: 'game2', Game: 'Football' },
    { Id: 'game3', Game: 'Tennis' }
  ];

   // maps the appropriate column to fields property
   private fields: object= { text: 'Game', value: 'Id' };

  public render() {
    return (
      // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" fields={this.fields} dataSource={this.sportsData} allowCustom={true} placeholder="Select a game" />
    );
  }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

[Functional-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
function App() {
    // defined the array of data
    const sportsData = [
        { Id: 'game1', Game: 'Badminton' },
        { Id: 'game2', Game: 'Football' },
        { Id: 'game3', Game: 'Tennis' }
    ];
    // maps the appropriate column to fields property
    const fields = { text: 'Game', value: 'Id' };
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
    <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" fields={fields} dataSource={sportsData} allowCustom={true} placeholder="Select a game"/>);
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

function App() {
 // defined the array of data
  const sportsData: { [key: string]: Object }[] = [
    { Id: 'game1', Game: 'Badminton' },
    { Id: 'game2', Game: 'Football' },
    { Id: 'game3', Game: 'Tennis' }
  ];

   // maps the appropriate column to fields property
  const fields: object= { text: 'Game', value: 'Id' };

  return (
  // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
      <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" fields={fields} dataSource={sportsData} allowCustom={true} placeholder="Select a game" />
  );
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Configure the popup list

By default, the width of the popup list automatically adjusts according to the ComboBox input element’s width, and the height of the popup list has ‘300px’.

The height and width of the popup list can also be customized using the popupHeight  and popupWidth property respectively.

In the following sample, popup list’s width and height have configured.

[Class-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
export default class App extends React.Component {
    // define the array of data
    sportsData = ['Badminton', 'Basketball', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    render() {
        return (
        // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={this.sportsData} popupHeight="200px" popupWidth="250px" placeholder="select a game"/>);
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
    // define the array of data
    private sportsData: string[] = ['Badminton', 'Basketball', 'Cricket', 'Football', 'Golf', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    public render() {
        return (
             // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
            <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={this.sportsData} popupHeight="200px" popupWidth="250px" placeholder="select a game" />
        );
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

[Functional-component]

import { ComboBoxComponent } 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', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
    <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={sportsData} popupHeight="200px" popupWidth="250px" placeholder="select a game"/>);
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));
import { ComboBoxComponent } 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', 'Hockey', 'Rugby', 'Snooker', 'Tennis'];
    return (
    // specifies the tag for render the ComboBox component
        <ComboBoxComponent id="comboelement" dataSource={sportsData} popupHeight="200px" popupWidth="250px" placeholder="select a game" />
    );
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

See Also