QComboBox value mapping

[anuj nogja]

Hi All,
There is a requiremnt in the project to create two comboBox (having same items) such that value selected in one comboBox should not appear in the dropdown of another combo box.
For Example:
ComboBox1- ComboBox2
Item1 - Item1
Item2 - Item2
Item3 - Item3

suppose if user select Item1 from ComboBox1 then Item1 should not appear in the dropdown of ComboBox2.

Kindly suggest how this can be achieved...

Regards,
Anuj

[VRonin]

EDIT: this code is wrong, look below

QStringListModel* comboModel=new QStringListModel(QStringList() << "Item1" << "Item2" << "Item3",this);
QSortFilterProxyModel* comboFilter = new QSortFilterProxyModel(this);
comboFilter->setSourceModel(comboModel);
combo1->setModel(comboModel);
combo2->setModel(comboFilter);
connect(combo1, QOverload<const QString&>::of(&QComboBox::currentIndexChanged),comboFilter,[comboFilter](const QString &text)->void{comboFilter->setFilterRegExp("^(?!"+text+".*)$");});

[anuj nogja]

@VRonin Hi,

Getting an error "no matching call to "QOverload<const QString&>::of(&QComboBox::currentIndexChanged)".

Regards,
Anuj

[VRonin]

That's a straight copy-paste from the Qt docs. What version of Qt are you using?
Make sure you have CONFIG += c++11 in your .pro file and re-run qmake

[JonB]

@VRonin said in QComboBox value mapping:

"^(?!"+text+".*)$"

[Not that this has anything to do with the OP's current problem, but...]

What does that monstrous reg exp mean (the ?!)? And my first thought is that doesn't the arbitrary text content need reg-exp protection for funny chars?

[SGaist]

@JonB https://regex101.com is your friend when dealing with regular expression.

[JonB]

@SGaist
OK, so (?!...) is "negative lookahead". I think you are filtering out items starting withtext (why only starting with, I don't know). But the text might happen to contain reg ex special chars, and you're not escaping them? I'm just trying to understand....

[SGaist]

In the case at hand, if text happened to contain such special characters, then yes it wouldn't be handle properly but it's then the responsibility of the author to handle that case if such an expression could be listed in the first combobox.

[VRonin]

To avoid the problem @JonB correctly highlighted:

• create this class in a header file

class NegativeSortFilterProxyModel : public QSortFilterProxyModel{
Q_OBJECT
Q_DISABLE_COPY(NegativeSortFilterProxyModel)
public:
explicit NegativeSortFilterProxyModel(QObject* parent = Q_NULLPTR) : QSortFilterProxyModel(parent){}
protected:
bool filterAcceptsRow(int source_row, const QModelIndex &source_parent) const Q_DECL_OVERRIDE{
return !QSortFilterProxyModel::filterAcceptsRow(source_row,source_parent);
}
};

• in the snippet above replace QSortFilterProxyModel with NegativeSortFilterProxyModel
• replace "^(?!"+text+".*)$" with '^'+QRegExp::escape(text)+'$'

[JonB]

@SGaist said in QComboBox value mapping:

In the case at hand, if text happened to contain such special characters, then yes it wouldn't be handle properly but it's then the responsibility of the author to handle that case if such an expression could be listed in the first combobox.

OK, that clarifies, it was just that I was trying to confirm my understanding.

(I do not mean to be picky, or get into an argument. I understand this was example code now, and this is not a huge issue. I totally respect your excellent answers. But I do not agree that this should be written as "the responsibility of the author to handle that case if such an expression could be listed in the first combobox". Combobox could contain whatever. Your code --- given that it's picking up whatever happens to be in the other combo box to remove from this one --- should be responsible for whatever the Qt/C++/library is for going QRegExp(text)::EscapeProtectChars() instead of just passing text. IMHO.)

@VRonin

replace "^(?!"+text+".*)$" with '^'+text+'$'

Although your suggestion makes the reg exp a bit easier to understand, I don't see that it "To avoid the problem @JonB correctly highlighted" (if you mean about text), in that text is still inserted into a reg exp without escape/protection.

As I say, I don't mean to be picky/rude/disrespectful, I'm just trying to verify my understanding.

[VRonin]

@JonB Sorry, I thought you were referring to another problem.
In my original implementation if you had Item1, Item2, ... , Item10 and select Item1, Item10 would disappear too.
i corrected the text above to do the regexp escaping too so now the NegativeSortFilterProxyModel solution should be general.

To put it all together:

class NegativeSortFilterProxyModel : public QSortFilterProxyModel{
Q_OBJECT
Q_DISABLE_COPY(NegativeSortFilterProxyModel)
public:
explicit NegativeSortFilterProxyModel(QObject* parent = Q_NULLPTR) : QSortFilterProxyModel(parent){}
protected:
bool filterAcceptsRow(int source_row, const QModelIndex &source_parent) const Q_DECL_OVERRIDE{
return !QSortFilterProxyModel::filterAcceptsRow(source_row,source_parent);
}
};

QStringListModel* comboModel=new QStringListModel(QStringList() << "Item1" << "Item2" << "Item3",this);
NegativeSortFilterProxyModel* comboFilter = new NegativeSortFilterProxyModel(this);
comboFilter->setSourceModel(comboModel);
combo1->setModel(comboModel);
combo2->setModel(comboFilter);
connect(combo1, QOverload<const QString&>::of(&QComboBox::currentIndexChanged),comboFilter,[comboFilter](const QString &text)->void{comboFilter->setFilterRegExp('^'+QRegExp::escape(text)+'$');});

[JonB]

@VRonin said in QComboBox value mapping:

In my original implementation if you had Item1, Item2, ... , Item10 and select Item1, Item10 would disappear too.

Ah, yes indeed, I had asked/wondered why @SGaist's reg exp was a left-hand side match only, but nobody answered that, so I forgot about it. Again you have clarified my puzzlement by confirming it would have done a partial match by making yours a full match, so I am a happy understanding bunny now :)

[Rondog]

If you are not dealing with a large number of items you could regenerate the contents of the second combobox excluding the selected item from the first combobox. Use the find option to make sure the same item is selected or active after rebuilding the list of combobox items (if the second combobox select happens to not match the first). You would iterate over the items in the first combobox and add them to the second excluding the one that is currently active.

If the are many items in the combobox you could use insert/delete (take) to add or remove items. It is a little more complicated to do this over the first method.

[anuj nogja]

@Rondog Hi
In the project, i have to deal with 8-9 items only. Can you please share the code of regenerating the content of second combobox based upon the selection of item in first combobox.

[anuj nogja]

@VRonin Its working fine but not able to select item1in combobox1. If i want to select item1 then first have to selwct some other item in combobox1 then only it allows to selwct item1.
Kindly suggest on how can item1 be selected.

Regards,
Anuj

[VRonin]

I can't reproduce, can you try this minimal example?

#include <QApplication>
#include <QSortFilterProxyModel>
#include <QStringListModel>
#include <QComboBox>
#include <QHBoxLayout>
class NegativeSortFilterProxyModel : public QSortFilterProxyModel{
    Q_DISABLE_COPY(NegativeSortFilterProxyModel)
public:
    explicit NegativeSortFilterProxyModel(QObject* parent = Q_NULLPTR) : QSortFilterProxyModel(parent){}
protected:
    bool filterAcceptsRow(int source_row, const QModelIndex &source_parent) const Q_DECL_OVERRIDE{
        return !QSortFilterProxyModel::filterAcceptsRow(source_row,source_parent);
    }
};
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc,argv);
    QWidget mainWid;
    QComboBox* combo1=new QComboBox(&mainWid);
    QComboBox* combo2=new QComboBox(&mainWid);
    QHBoxLayout* mainLay = new QHBoxLayout(&mainWid);
    mainLay->addWidget(combo1);
    mainLay->addWidget(combo2);
    QStringListModel* comboModel=new QStringListModel(QStringList() << "Item1" << "Item2" << "Item3",&mainWid);
    NegativeSortFilterProxyModel* comboFilter = new NegativeSortFilterProxyModel(&mainWid);
    QObject::connect(combo1, QOverload<const QString&>::of(&QComboBox::currentIndexChanged),comboFilter,[comboFilter](const QString &text)->void{comboFilter->setFilterRegExp('^'+QRegExp::escape(text)+'$');});
    comboFilter->setSourceModel(comboModel);
    combo1->setModel(comboModel);
    combo2->setModel(comboFilter);
    mainWid.show();
    return a.exec();
}