# Auto Suggest/Complete **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 3, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/auto-suggest-complete/142100 "2008-07-03T12:42:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/auto-suggest-complete/142100/1 "2008-07-03T12:42:24Z")
Hello everyone, Has anyone come up with a decent autocomplete function? And by this I mean a funtcion that allows the user to search a list alphabetically, as with Google suggest, as oppsed to simply using wildcards and the SQL Like function? I’ve been looking around but to no avail… Any help is appreciated. j ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/auto-suggest-complete/142100/2 "2008-07-04T11:23:46Z")
I have to answer my own question here, which, in a way, illustrates a certain level of incompetence on my part. To search a list of names, for example, using sql alphabetically, one could use the like function as follows" Select from names where name like ‘a%’ This will return all names that begin with the letter a. j On Jul 3, 11:41 am, “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/auto-suggest-complete/142100/3 "2008-07-04T12:15:58Z")
2 more cents > Select from names where name like ‘a%’ if you have more than just first name, you can also use ‘%a%’ to look for substrings On Jul 4, 10:23 am, “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)