Simple Autocomplete In Pure HTML JS (Free Download)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create an autocomplete with pure HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Yes, there are autocomplete plugins all over the Internet. But some of them require third-party frameworks and introduce a lot of loading bloat. So here it is, a sharing of mine with zero third-party libraries. Read on!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the example source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

QUICK NOTES

• The autocomplete search is case-insensitive.

If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download the source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

 

 

EXAMPLE 1) SIMPLE AUTOCOMPLETE

<!-- (A) LOAD JS + CSS -->
<script src="autocomplete.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="autocomplete.css">
 
<!-- (B) INPUT FIELD -->
<input type="text" id="demoA">
 
<script>
// (C) ATTACH AUTOCOMPLETE TO INPUT FIELD
ac.attach({
  target: document.getElementById("demoA"),
  data: ["诸葛猪哥", "Aaronn", "Baattyy", "Chaarles", "Dionn", "Elly"]
});
</script>

1. Load the autocomplete CSS and Javascript.
2. Define the <input> field.
3. Lastly, use ac.attach() to initiate the autocomplete.
   • target HTML field to attach the autocomplete.
   • data An array of data for the autocomplete. This can also be a URL or object – See examples below.

 

EXAMPLE 2) AJAX AUTOCOMPLETE

<!-- (A) INPUT FIELD -->
<input type="text" id="demoB">
 
<script>
// (B) ATTACH AUTOCOMPLETE TO INPUT FIELD
ac.attach({
  // (B1) REQUIRED - TARGET FIELD + URL
  target: document.getElementById("demoB"),
  data: "2b-search.php",
 
  // (B2) OPTIONAL - POST DATA
  post: { key: "value" }
});
</script>

Want to fetch suggestions from the server instead? Simply pass the URL into data, and it will change into “AJAX mode”. Take note that you can also define post to attach POST variables. As for the server side, here is a dummy example in PHP:

// (A) DUMMY DATA
$data = ["诸葛猪哥", "Aaronn", "Baattyy", "Chaarles", "Dionn", "Elly"];
 
// (B) SEARCH
$search = strtolower($_POST["search"]);
$results = [];
foreach ($data as $d) {
  if (strpos(strtolower($d), $search) !== false) { $results[] = $d; }
}
echo count($results)==0 ? null : json_encode($results);

 

 

EXAMPLE 3) AUTOCOMPLETE MULTIPLE FIELDS

<!-- (A) AUTOCOMPLETE MULTIPLE FIELDS -->
Name: <input type="text" id="demoC"><br>
Email: <input type="email" id="dEmail"><br>
Age: <input type="text" id="dAge">
 
<script>
// (B) ATTACH AUTOCOMPLETE
ac.attach({
  // (B1) USE AN ARRAY OF OBJECTS AS SUGGESTIONS
  target: document.getElementById("demoC"),
  data: [
    {D: "诸葛猪哥", dEmail: "zhuge@doe.com", dAge: 67 },
    {D: "Aaronn", dEmail: "aaronn@doe.com", dAge: 27 },
    {D: "Baattyy", dEmail: "baattyy@doe.com", dAge: 37 },
    {D: "Chaarles", dEmail: "chaarles@doe.com", dAge: 47 },
    {D: "Dionn", dEmail: "dionn@doe.com", dAge: 57 },
    {D: "Elly", dEmail: "elly@doe.com", dAge: 18 }
  ],
 
  // (B2) OPTIONAL, DO THIS ON SELECT
  select : (val, multi) => {
    console.log(val); // selected value
    console.log(multi); // attached multiple values
  },
 
  // (B3) OPTIONAL - DELAY + MIN CHARACTERS
  delay: 1000,
  min: 2
});
</script>

Choose a suggested name, autocomplete will also fill in the email and age. As you can see, we now pass in an array of objects for data.

• D Data for the “main autocomplete field”.
• dEmail dAge ID of the extra fields to “cascade fill”.

Also, take note of the optional settings:

• select Run this function when the user selects an option.
• delay Delay before autocomplete is triggered. Defaults to 500 ms.
• min Minimum characters for autocomplete to trigger. Defaults to 2.

P.S. This also works in AJAX mode. Just set the server-side script to return a JSON-encoded array of objects.

 

 

 

PART A) PROPERTIES

var ac = {
  // (A) PROPERTIES
  now : null, // current "focused instance"
  // ...
};

• var ac This object contains all the mechanics to drive the autocomplete.
• ac.now The “currently focused” autocomplete instance.

 

PART B) INITIALIZING THE AUTOCOMPLETE

// (B) ATTACH AUTOCOMPLETE
// target : target field
// data : suggestion data (array), or url (string)
// post : optional, extra data to send to server
// delay : optional, delay before suggestion, default 500ms
// min : optional, minimum characters to fire suggestion, default 2
// select : optional, function to call on selecting an option
attach : inst => {
  // (B1) SET DEFAULTS
  if (inst.delay == undefined) { inst.delay = 500; }
  if (inst.min == undefined) { inst.min = 2; }
  inst.timer = null; // autosuggest timer
  inst.ajax = null; // ajax fetch abort controller
 
  // (B2) UPDATE HTML
  inst.target.setAttribute("autocomplete", "off");
  inst.hWrap = document.createElement("div"); // autocomplete wrapper
  inst.hList = document.createElement("ul"); // suggestion list
  inst.hWrap.className = "acWrap";
  inst.hList.className = "acSuggest";
  inst.hList.style.display = "none";
  inst.target.parentElement.insertBefore(inst.hWrap, inst.target);
  inst.hWrap.appendChild(inst.target);
  inst.hWrap.appendChild(inst.hList);

  // (B3) KEY PRESS LISTENER
  instance.target.addEventListener("keyup", (evt) => {
    // (B3-1) CLEAR OLD TIMER & SUGGESTION BOX
    ac.now = inst;
    if (inst.timer != null) { window.clearTimeout(inst.timer); }
    if (inst.ajax != null) { inst.ajax.abort(); }
    inst.hList.innerHTML = "";
    inst.hList.style.display = "none";

    // (B3-2) CREATE NEW TIMER - FETCH DATA FROM SERVER OR ARRAY
    if (inst.target.value.length >= inst.min) {
      if (typeof inst.data == "string") { inst.timer = setTimeout(() => ac.fetch(), inst.delay); }
      else { inst.timer = setTimeout(() => ac.filter(), inst.delay); }
    }
  });
},

You already know ac.attach(), this is used to create an autocomplete instance. All it does is pretty much insert the autocomplete HTML, and add keyup listener on the input field itself. If you are curious, here is how the HTML will be modified:

<div class="acWrap">
  <input type="text" autocomplete="off">
  <ul class="acSuggest">
    <li>OPTION</li> <li>OPTION</li> <li>...</li>
  </ul>
</div>

 

 

PART C & D) SUGGESTIONS DATA

// (C) FILTER ARRAY DATA
filter : () => {
  // (C1) SEARCH DATA
  let search = ac.now.target.value.toLowerCase(),
      multi = typeof ac.now.data[0]=="object",
      results = [];

  // (C2) FILTER & DRAW APPLICABLE SUGGESTIONS
  for (let i of ac.now.data) {
    let entry = multi ? i.D : i ;
    if (entry.toLowerCase().includes(search)) { results.push(i); }
  }
  ac.draw(results.length==0 ? null : results);
},
  
// (D) AJAX FETCH SUGGESTIONS FROM SERVER
fetch : () => {
  // (D1) FORM DATA
  let data = new FormData();
  data.append("search", ac.now.target.value);
  if (ac.now.post) {
    for (let [k,v] of Object.entries(ac.now.post)) { data.append(k,v); }
  }
 
  // (D2) FETCH
  ac.now.ajax = new AbortController();
  fetch(ac.now.data, { method:"POST", body:data, signal:ac.now.ajax.signal })
  .then(res => {
    ac.now.ajax = null;
    if (res.status != 200) { throw new Error("Bad Server Response"); }
    return res.json();
  })
  .then(res => ac.draw(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));
},

• As you already know, there are 2 ways to drive autocomplete. By providing an array of data, or pointing it to a URL.
  • ac.filter() Searches through the array and returns the search results.
  • ac.fetch() Does an AJAX call to your specified URL. It sends a search parameter, along with any post that you may have specified. It expects a JSON-encoded array as a response.
• Lastly, both ac.filter() and ac.fetch() will call ac.draw() to render the “search results” in the HTML suggestion box.

 

PART E) DRAW HTML SUGGESTIONS

// (E) DRAW AUTOSUGGESTION OPTIONS
draw : results => { if (results == null) { ac.close(); } else {
  ac.now.hList.innerHTML = "";
  let multi = typeof results[0]=="object", entry;
  for (let i of results) {
    let row = document.createElement("li");
    row.innerHTML = multi ? i.D : i;
    if (multi) {
      entry = {...i};
      delete entry.D;
      row.dataset.multi = JSON.stringify(entry);
    }
    row.onclick = () => ac.select(row);
    ac.now.hList.appendChild(row);
  }
  ac.now.hList.style.display = "block";
}},

Kind of self-explanatory, ac.draw() renders the list of suggestions as obtained from ac.fetch() or ac.filter().

 

 

PART F) SELECTING A SUGGESTION

// (F) ON SELECTING A SUGGESTION
select : row => {
  // (F1) SET VALUES
  ac.now.target.value = row.innerHTML;
  let multi = null;
  if (row.dataset.multi !== undefined) {
    multi = JSON.parse(row.dataset.multi);
    for (let i in multi) { document.getElementById(i).value = multi[i]; }
  }
 
  // (F2) CALL ON SELECT IF DEFINED
  if (ac.now.select != null) { ac.now.select(row.innerHTML, multi); }
  ac.close();
},

When the user picks a suggestion, ac.select() is fired. This simply populates the input field with the selected value and closes the suggestion box.

 

PART G & H) CLOSING

// (G) CLOSE AUTOCOMPLETE
close : () => { if (ac.now != null) {
  if (ac.now.ajax != null) { ac.now.ajax.abort(); }
  if (ac.now.timer != null) { window.clearTimeout(ac.now.timer); }
  ac.now.hList.innerHTML = "";
  ac.now.hList.style.display = "none";
  ac.now = null;
}},
  
// (H) CLOSE AUTOCOMPLETE IF USER CLICKS ANYWHERE OUTSIDE
checkclose : evt => { if (ac.now!=null && ac.now.hWrap.contains(evt.target)==false) {
  ac.close();
}}

document.addEventListener("click", ac.checkclose);

• Captain Obvious once again, ac.close() will close the currently open autocomplete box.
• Lastly, ac.checkclose() is a small bit to close the autocomplete box when the user clicks anywhere outside of the currently active autocomplete box.

 

 

USING ARROW KEYS TO SELECT SUGGESTIONS

• Update ac.draw(), attach key listeners.
• Introduce a selected flag to track/highlight the currently selected suggestion.
• If the keypress is “up/down” – Change the selected suggestion.
• If the keypress is “enter”, fire ac.select().
• If the keypress is “escape”, fire ac.close().
• When the suggestion box is closed, detach the key listeners accordingly.

Good luck – This is not as simple as some think. Also, this is a useless feature on touch screens and mobile devices these days.

 

NON-ENGLISH & CASE SENSITIVE SEARCH

• If you are working with non-English languages, remember to add <meta charset="utf8"> into the HTML <head>.
• If you want a case-insensitive search, do an easy change in autocompete.js, function filter() – Remove both toLowerCase().

 

COMPATIBILITY CHECKS

• Arrow Functions – CanIUse
• Spread In Objects – CanIUse
• Fetch – CanIUse

Will work fine in all modern “Grade A” browsers, not friendly on ancient browsers.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Simple AJAX Examples – Code Boxx
• Autocomplete With PHP MYSQL – Code Boxx
• How to implement a Keyword Search in MySQL? – Stack Overflow
• MySQL LIKE: Querying Data based on a Specified Pattern – MySQLTutorial
• Example on CodePen – JS Autocomplete