Is there any difference between drop down box and combo box?

html drop-down-menu combobox user-controls
Rakesh Juyal picture Rakesh Juyal · Feb 1, 2010 · Viewed 85.8k times · Source

Is there any difference between drop down box and combo box [ HTML ]?

Actually the point is, everytime i say something like: "there is some problem with the combo box", my senior says: "that's not a combo box that is a drop down", :)

Answer

Pekka picture Pekka · Feb 1, 2010

Technically, there are no combo boxes in HTML, because the <SELECT> can't be typed into. See the Wikipedia article on Combo Box (emphasis mine):

A combo box is a commonly-used graphical user interface widget. It is a combination of a drop-down list or list box and a single-line textbox, allowing the user to either type a value directly into the control or choose from the list of existing options.

While the definition of drop-down list matches exactly what the HTML <SELECT> element does:

When activated, it displays (drops down) a list of values, from which the user may select one.

So your senior is right.

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