CodeItBetter Programming Another VB Programming Blog

'Controls - How to Make a ComboBox's dropdown area wide enough for its choices
'Loop through the ComboBox's choices using TextWidth to see how wide each is.
'Use SendMessage with the CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH parameter to make the dropdown area
'big enough to display the longest choice.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Dim I As Integer
    Dim max_wid As Long
 
    ' See how wide the widest ComboBox entry is.
    Me.ScaleMode = vbPixels
    For I = 0 To Combo1.ListCount - 1
        If max_wid < TextWidth(Combo1.List(I)) Then
            max_wid = TextWidth(Combo1.List(I))
        End If
    Next I
 
    ' Set the width for the dropdown list, adding a margin.
    SendMessage Combo1.hWnd, CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH, max_wid + 10, 0
 
    ' Select the first choice.
    Combo1.ListIndex = 0
End Sub