Get the list of candidates generated by ido

Question

Is it possible to get the list and save it in variable? I run

(ido-completing-read "prompt: " '("one" "two" "three" "four" "five") nil nil "t")

and ido generates list of candidates {two | three}. I want something like this

(setq my-desired-list (ido-completing-read-silent '("one" "two" "three" "four" "five") nil nil "t"))

The value of my-desired-list after execution is ("two" "three"). I use complex settings for ido, it prepares very special filters for choices and I want to use the results directly.

Function `ido-completing-read` gets arbitrary list in second argument. — artscan, Oct 19 '13 at 04:40

justinhj · Answer 1 · 2013-10-19T06:58:55.997

1

The variable `ido-matches' will contain the matched items from the last call to ido-completing-read. So this does what you want:

(defun ido-completing-read-silent (prompt choices initial-input)
  (ido-completing-read prompt choices nil nil initial-input)
  ido-matches)

(ido-completing-read-silent "prompt: " '("one" "two" "three" "four" "five") "t")
;; ("two" "three")

edited Oct 19 '13 at 06:58

answered Oct 19 '13 at 06:53

justinhj

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Can I make it realy "silent", e.g. without interaction with user? – artscan Oct 19 '13 at 07:14
Oh, I understand. You want to avoid having the user press the enter key. I'll have to think about that one. – justinhj Oct 19 '13 at 17:36
Temporarily modify, or create a similar function, that alters the section of code `read-from-minibuffer` within `ido-read-internal` and/or alter or create a different type of `ido-make-prompt`? I'm just spinning my wheels and thinking out loud. – lawlist Oct 19 '13 at 22:37
1

@lawlist thanks for discussion, see my answer. I think it is useful and needs generalization. – artscan Oct 20 '13 at 12:30

artscan · Answer 2 · 2021-07-25T06:46:52.253

(defun ido-completing-read-silent (prompt choices initial-input)
  (run-with-timer 0.0001 nil 'exit-minibuffer)
  (ido-completing-read prompt choices nil nil initial-input)
  (mapcar (lambda (x) (flx-propertize x nil)) ido-matches))

(equal (ido-completing-read-silent "prompt: " '("one" "two" "three" "four" "five") "t")
       '("three" "two"))

The solution can be used in another cases, for different interactive functions like ido-completing-read.

Get the list of candidates generated by ido

2 Answers2