# Editor example Auto-complete

This example demonstrates the `autocomplete` field type in Editor. It allows free form text entry but gives the end user a list of options that they can quickly choose from to simplify data entry. Normally the list of options is derived from the values that are already used for this field in other rows.

In this example the Office field uses `autocomplete` to show a list of office names. The options available are populated through the JSON that is used to populate the DataTable. This is useful for small data sets, but if you have a large number of options, you might wish to load the options via Ajax.

As the `autocomplete` allows free form text entry, additional options can be added at any time. If you wish to limit the end user to specific values, consider using an input type such as `tags`, `select` or `datatable`, which are more suited for joined data (i.e. where the value and label are not the same). A suitable validator at the server-side might also be considered.

Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary

- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The JavaScript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`const editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../php/autoComplete.php', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Position:', name: 'position' }, { label: 'Office:', name: 'office', type: 'autocomplete' }, { label: 'Extension:', name: 'extn' }, { label: 'Start date:', name: 'start_date', type: 'datetime' }, { label: 'Salary:', name: 'salary' } ], table: '#example' }); new DataTable('#example', { ajax: { url: '../php/autoComplete.php', type: 'POST' }, columns: [ { data: null, render: (data) => data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'extn' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') } ], layout: { topStart: { buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } }, select: true });`

In addition to the above code, the following JavaScript library files are loaded for use in this example:

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.