Autocomplete

The autocomplete is a normal text input enhanced by a panel of suggested options.

The widget is useful for setting the value of a single-line textbox in one of two types of scenarios:

The value for the textbox must be chosen from a predefined set of allowed values, for example a location field must contain a valid location name: combo box.
The textbox may contain any arbitrary value, but it is advantageous to suggest possible values to the user, for example a search field may suggest similar or previous searches to save the user time: free solo.

It's meant to be an improved version of the "react-select" and "downshift" packages.

Combo box

The value must be chosen from a predefined set of allowed values.

Movie

<Autocomplete
  disablePortal
  options={top100Films}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="Movie" />}
/>

<Autocomplete
  disablePortal
  options={top100Films}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="Movie" />}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

Options structure

By default, the component accepts the following options structures:

interface AutocompleteOption {
  label: string;
}
// or
type AutocompleteOption = string;

for instance:

const options = [
  { label: 'The Godfather', id: 1 },
  { label: 'Pulp Fiction', id: 2 },
];
// or
const options = ['The Godfather', 'Pulp Fiction'];

However, you can use different structures by providing a getOptionLabel prop.

If your options are objects, you must provide the isOptionEqualToValue prop to ensure correct selection and highlighting. By default, it uses strict equality to compare options with the current value.

Playground

Each of the following examples demonstrates one feature of the Autocomplete component.

disableCloseOnSelect

clearOnEscape

disableClearable

includeInputInList

flat

controlled

autoComplete

disableListWrap

openOnFocus

autoHighlight

autoSelect

disabled

disablePortal

blurOnSelect

clearOnBlur

selectOnFocus

readOnly

Country select

Choose one of the 248 countries.

Choose a country

Controlled states

The component has two states that can be controlled:

the "value" state with the value/onChange props combination. This state represents the value selected by the user, for instance when pressing Enter.
the "input value" state with the inputValue/onInputChange props combination. This state represents the value displayed in the textbox.

These two states are isolated, and should be controlled independently.

value: 'Option 1'

inputValue: ''

Controllable

If you control the value, make sure it's referentially stable between renders. In other words, the reference to the value shouldn't change if the value itself doesn't change.

// ⚠️ BAD
return <Autocomplete multiple value={allValues.filter((v) => v.selected)} />;

// 👍 GOOD
const selectedValues = React.useMemo(
  () => allValues.filter((v) => v.selected),
  [allValues],
);
return <Autocomplete multiple value={selectedValues} />;

In the first example, allValues.filter is called and returns a new array every render. The fix includes memoizing the value, so it changes only when needed.

Free solo

Set freeSolo to true so the textbox can contain any arbitrary value.

Search input

The prop is designed to cover the primary use case of a search input with suggestions, for example Google search or react-autowhatever.

freeSolo

Search input

Creatable

If you intend to use this mode for a combo box like experience (an enhanced version of a select element) we recommend setting:

selectOnFocus to help the user clear the selected value.
clearOnBlur to help the user enter a new value.
handleHomeEndKeys to move focus inside the popup with the Home and End keys.
A last option, for instance: Add "YOUR SEARCH".

Free solo with text demo

You could also display a dialog when the user wants to add a new value.

Free solo dialog

Grouped

You can group the options with the groupBy prop. If you do so, make sure that the options are also sorted with the same dimension that they are grouped by, otherwise, you will notice duplicate headers.

With categories

<Autocomplete
  options={options.sort((a, b) => -b.firstLetter.localeCompare(a.firstLetter))}
  groupBy={(option) => option.firstLetter}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="With categories" />}
/>

<Autocomplete
  options={options.sort((a, b) => -b.firstLetter.localeCompare(a.firstLetter))}
  groupBy={(option) => option.firstLetter}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="With categories" />}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

To control how the groups are rendered, provide a custom renderGroup prop. This is a function that accepts an object with two fields:

group—a string representing a group name
children—a collection of list items that belong to the group

The following demo shows how to use this prop to define custom markup and override the styles of the default groups:

With categories

<Autocomplete
  options={options.sort((a, b) => -b.firstLetter.localeCompare(a.firstLetter))}
  groupBy={(option) => option.firstLetter}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="With categories" />}
  renderGroup={(params) => (
    <li key={params.key}>
      <GroupHeader>{params.group}</GroupHeader>
      <GroupItems>{params.children}</GroupItems>
    </li>
  )}
/>

<Autocomplete
  options={options.sort((a, b) => -b.firstLetter.localeCompare(a.firstLetter))}
  groupBy={(option) => option.firstLetter}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="With categories" />}
  renderGroup={(params) => (
    <li key={params.key}>
      <GroupHeader>{params.group}</GroupHeader>
      <GroupItems>{params.children}</GroupItems>
    </li>
  )}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

Disabled options

<Autocomplete
  options={timeSlots}
  getOptionDisabled={(option) =>
    option === timeSlots[0] || option === timeSlots[2]
  }
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="Disabled options" />}
/>

<Autocomplete
  options={timeSlots}
  getOptionDisabled={(option) =>
    option === timeSlots[0] || option === timeSlots[2]
  }
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="Disabled options" />}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

`useAutocomplete`

For advanced customization use cases, a headless useAutocomplete() hook is exposed. It accepts almost the same options as the Autocomplete component minus all the props related to the rendering of JSX. The Autocomplete component is built on this hook.

import { useAutocomplete } from '@mui/base/useAutocomplete';

The useAutocomplete hook is also reexported from @mui/material for convenience and backward compatibility.

import useAutocomplete from '@mui/material/useAutocomplete';

📦 4.6 kB gzipped.

useAutocomplete

Customized hook

The Godfather

Head to the customization section for an example with the Autocomplete component instead of the hook.

Asynchronous requests

The component supports two different asynchronous use-cases:

Load on open: it waits for the component to be interacted with to load the options.
Search as you type: a new request is made for each keystroke.

Load on open

It displays a progress state as long as the network request is pending.

Asynchronous

Search as you type

If your logic is fetching new options on each keystroke and using the current value of the textbox to filter on the server, you may want to consider throttling requests.

Additionally, you will need to disable the built-in filtering of the Autocomplete component by overriding the filterOptions prop:

<Autocomplete filterOptions={(x) => x} />

Google Maps place

A customized UI for Google Maps Places Autocomplete. For this demo, we need to load the Google Maps JavaScript and Google Places API.

Add a location

Multiple values

Also known as tags, the user is allowed to enter more than one value.

Multiple values

Inception

filterSelectedOptions

Inception

freeSolo

Inception

readOnly

Forrest Gump

Inception

Fixed options

In the event that you need to lock certain tags so that they can't be removed, you can set the chips disabled.

Fixed tag

Pulp Fiction

Inception

Checkboxes

Limit tags

You can use the limitTags prop to limit the number of displayed options when not focused.

limitTags

Inception

Forrest Gump

<Autocomplete
  multiple
  limitTags={2}
  id="multiple-limit-tags"
  options={top100Films}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  defaultValue={[top100Films[13], top100Films[12], top100Films[11]]}
  renderInput={(params) => (
    <TextField {...params} label="limitTags" placeholder="Favorites" />
  )}
  sx={{ width: '500px' }}
/>

<Autocomplete
  multiple
  limitTags={2}
  id="multiple-limit-tags"
  options={top100Films}
  getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
  defaultValue={[top100Films[13], top100Films[12], top100Films[11]]}
  renderInput={(params) => (
    <TextField {...params} label="limitTags" placeholder="Favorites" />
  )}
  sx={{ width: '500px' }}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

Sizes

Fancy smaller inputs? Use the size prop.

Size small

Inception

Size small

Inception

Size small

Inception

Customization

Custom input

The renderInput prop allows you to customize the rendered input. The first argument of this render prop contains props that you need to forward. Pay specific attention to the ref and inputProps keys.

Value:

Globally Customized Options

To globally customize the Autocomplete options for all components in your app, you can use the theme default props and set the renderOption property in the defaultProps key. The renderOption property takes the ownerState as the fourth parameter, which includes props and internal component state. To display the label, you can use the getOptionLabel prop from the ownerState. This approach enables different options for each Autocomplete component while keeping the options styling consistent.

Choose a movie

Choose a country

<ThemeProvider theme={customTheme(outerTheme)}>
  <Stack spacing={5} sx={{ width: 300 }}>
    <MovieSelect />
    <CountrySelect />
  </Stack>
</ThemeProvider>

<ThemeProvider theme={customTheme(outerTheme)}>
  <Stack spacing={5} sx={{ width: 300 }}>
    <MovieSelect />
    <CountrySelect />
  </Stack>
</ThemeProvider>

Press Enter to start editing

GitHub's picker

This demo reproduces GitHub's label picker:

help wanted

type: bug

Head to the Customized hook section for a customization example with the useAutocomplete hook instead of the component.

Hint

The following demo shows how to add a hint feature to the Autocomplete:

Movie

Highlights

The following demo relies on autosuggest-highlight, a small (1 kB) utility for highlighting text in autosuggest and autocomplete components.

Highlights

Custom filter

The component exposes a factory to create a filter method that can be provided to the filterOptions prop. You can use it to change the default option filter behavior.

import { createFilterOptions } from '@mui/material/Autocomplete';

Arguments

config (object [optional]):

config.ignoreAccents (bool [optional]): Defaults to true. Remove diacritics.
config.ignoreCase (bool [optional]): Defaults to true. Lowercase everything.
config.limit (number [optional]): Default to null. Limit the number of suggested options to be shown. For example, if config.limit is 100, only the first 100 matching options are shown. It can be useful if a lot of options match and virtualization wasn't set up.
config.matchFrom ('any' | 'start' [optional]): Defaults to 'any'.
config.stringify (func [optional]): Controls how an option is converted into a string so that it can be matched against the input text fragment.
config.trim (bool [optional]): Defaults to false. Remove trailing spaces.

Returns

filterOptions: the returned filter method can be provided directly to the filterOptions prop of the Autocomplete component, or the parameter of the same name for the hook.

In the following demo, the options need to start with the query prefix:

const filterOptions = createFilterOptions({
  matchFrom: 'start',
  stringify: (option) => option.title,
});

<Autocomplete filterOptions={filterOptions} />;

Custom filter

Advanced

For richer filtering mechanisms, like fuzzy matching, it's recommended to look at match-sorter. For instance:

import { matchSorter } from 'match-sorter';

const filterOptions = (options, { inputValue }) => matchSorter(options, inputValue);

<Autocomplete filterOptions={filterOptions} />;

Virtualization

Search within 10,000 randomly generated options. The list is virtualized thanks to react-window.

10,000 options

<Autocomplete
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  disableListWrap
  options={OPTIONS}
  groupBy={(option) => option[0].toUpperCase()}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="10,000 options" />}
  renderOption={(props, option, state) =>
    [props, option, state.index] as React.ReactNode
  }
  renderGroup={(params) => params as any}
  slots={{
    popper: StyledPopper,
    listbox: ListboxComponent,
  }}
/>

<Autocomplete
  sx={{ width: 300 }}
  disableListWrap
  options={OPTIONS}
  groupBy={(option) => option[0].toUpperCase()}
  renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params} label="10,000 options" />}
  renderOption={(props, option, state) =>
    [props, option, state.index] as React.ReactNode
  }
  renderGroup={(params) => params as any}
  slots={{
    popper: StyledPopper,
    listbox: ListboxComponent,
  }}
/>

Press Enter to start editing

Events

If you would like to prevent the default key handler behavior, you can set the event's defaultMuiPrevented property to true:

<Autocomplete
  onKeyDown={(event) => {
    if (event.key === 'Enter') {
      // Prevent's default 'Enter' behavior.
      event.defaultMuiPrevented = true;
      // your handler code
    }
  }}
/>

Limitations

autocomplete/autofill

Browsers have heuristics to help the user fill in form inputs. However, this can harm the UX of the component.

By default, the component disables the input autocomplete feature (remembering what the user has typed for a given field in a previous session) with the autoComplete="off" attribute. Google Chrome does not currently support this attribute setting (Issue 41239842). A possible workaround is to remove the id to have the component generate a random one.

In addition to remembering past entered values, the browser might also propose autofill suggestions (saved login, address, or payment details). In the event you want the avoid autofill, you can try the following:

Name the input without leaking any information the browser can use. For example id="field1" instead of id="country". If you leave the id empty, the component uses a random id.
Set autoComplete="new-password" (some browsers will suggest a strong password for inputs with this attribute setting):
```
<TextField
  {...params}
  inputProps={{
    ...params.inputProps,
    autoComplete: 'new-password',
  }}
/>
```

Read the guide on MDN for more details.