Grouping Dropdown Options Using ReactJS

Grouping options means putting options in groups based on conditions for a better user experience. For example on our mobile, all contacts are grouped by their first letter so that it becomes easier for users to search for contacts. Material UI for React has this component available for us and it is very easy to integrate.

What Are Grouped Dropdown Options?

A grouped dropdown organizes options into categories or groups to make navigation and selection easier. Instead of displaying a flat list of options, grouped dropdowns visually separate related options under a group header. This is especially useful when dealing with large sets of data where items naturally fall into distinct categories.

Use Cases for Grouped Dropdowns:

• Countries by Continent: Group countries under their respective continents (e.g., Europe, Asia, Africa).
• Job Roles by Department: Group job roles under departments (e.g., Engineering, Sales, Marketing).
• Products by Category: Group products under categories (e.g., Electronics, Furniture, Clothing).

Steps To Grouping Dropdown options using ReactJS

Step 1: Create a React application using the following command:

npx create-react-app foldername
cd foldername

Step 2: Install the material-ui modules using the following command:

npm install @material-ui/core
npm install @material-ui/lab

Project Structure

Example: Now write down the following code in the App.js file. Here, App is our default component where we have written our code.

//App.js

import React from 'react'
import TextField from '@material-ui/core/TextField';
import Autocomplete from '@material-ui/lab/Autocomplete';

const App = () => {

    const myOptions = [
        { title: 'Gourav', age: 20 },
        { title: 'Dinesh', age: 25 },
        { title: 'Madhuri', age: 18 },
        { title: 'Kartik', age: 21 },
        { title: 'Gaurank', age: 5 },
    ];

    // Our sample dropdown options
    const options = myOptions.map((option) => {
        const initialLetter = option.title[0].toUpperCase();
        return {
            initialLetter: /[0-9]/.test(initialLetter) ?
                '0-9' : initialLetter,
            ...option,
        };
    });

    return (
        <div style={{ marginLeft: '40%', marginTop: '60px' }}>
            <h3>Greetings from GeeksforGeeks!</h3>
            <Autocomplete
                style={{ width: 600 }}
                options={options.sort((a, b) =>
                    -b.initialLetter.localeCompare(a.initialLetter))}
                groupBy={(option) => option.initialLetter}
                getOptionLabel={(option) => option.title}
                renderInput={(params) => <TextField {...params}
                    label="Grouping Demo"
                    variant="outlined" />}
            />
        </div>
    );
}

export default App

Run the application using the following command:

npm start

Output: Now open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000/, you will see the following output: