Question

Restrict width of a dropdown selectbox, but options are the full width of the Largest Option

Asked by: jporter80

How do you Restrict width of a dropdown selectbox, but options are the full width of the Largest Option

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Asked On
2008-06-11 at 15:48:04ID23477727
Tags

PHP Javascript

Topics

JavaScript

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: KravimirPosted on 2008-06-11 at 16:26:57ID: 21764984

You can use CSS to control the width, but then any text that is too wide will not be visible at all, so I don't recommend doing it.

 

by: jporter80Posted on 2008-06-11 at 16:28:51ID: 21764996

Thats why i need javascript, i believe you can do it with that but dont know how

 

by: rdivilbissPosted on 2008-06-11 at 18:09:49ID: 21765409

I don't like the idea, but this seems to work or will at least get you started.

<html>
 
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>Expando</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function expando(obj) {
	obj.style.width='150px';
	
}
 
function change(obj) {
	obj.style.width='80px';
	document.getElementById('nextField').focus();
}
 
function shrink(obj) {
	obj.style.width='80px';
}
//-->
</script>
</head>
 
<body>
 
<p><select size="1" id="select2" name="select2" style="width: 80px" onclick="expando(this);" onchange="change(this);" onblur="shrink(this);">
<option value="Mississippi">Mississippi</option>
<option value="Ak">Ak</option>
 
<option value="Gobbledygop">Gobbledygoop</option>
</select>&nbsp; <input id="nextField" type="text" name="T1" size="20" onfocus="shrink(document.getElementById('select2'));)"></p>
 
</body>
 
</html>

                                              
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by: mr_egyptianPosted on 2008-06-11 at 21:27:44ID: 21766191

It goes without saying that IE sucks balls, but I'll say it anyhow.  You can probably put something together with one of the popular javascript libraries, like ext:

http://extjs.com/

I spent a little time and threw a fake select menu together.  Far from perfect, but you're welcome to it if you can use it, and want to take the time to improve it.:

http://serial.heinous.net/~brut/drop2.html

I think you may just need to rethink your design unfortunately, or not rely on the select form element.

If the code that rdivilbiss posted above, will work for you I've attached a single function below to do the trick without hardcoding any values.  Just set the width:

<select style="width: 5em;" onclick="selwidth(this);" onblur="selwidth(this):">

Good luck...

  var originalwidth=null;
  
  function selwidth(obj){
	  if(originalwidth==null){
		  originalwidth=obj.style.width;
		  obj.style.width="auto";
	  }else{
		  obj.style.width=originalwidth;
		  originalwidth=null;
	  }
  }

                                              
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by: mr_egyptianPosted on 2008-06-22 at 19:26:30ID: 21843171

Did any of these ideas work out for you jporter80?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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