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How to correctly name this in English (in an official documentation for IT system):

enter image description here

Should I name this:

  • a listbox,
  • a list box,
  • a list-box,
  • a combobox,
  • a combo box,
  • a combo-box,
  • a dropdown,
  • a dropdown list,
  • a dropdown-list,
  • a drop down list,
  • a drop-down-list,
  • other name.

Similar question resulted with an answer that form with space is much more popular and often used.

Simiral Google Ngram search reveals that:

  • "listbox" is most popular,
  • "dropdown", "dropdown list" and "combo box" are less popular, but usage is still significant,
  • usage of all others falls below significance level.

It seems that "listbox" more popular than "dropdown" and "dropdown list", but this still doesn't answer my question, as I don't know, if "listbox" can be used correctly for pictured element?

Community
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trejder
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  • Can you please provide more information about how you are planning to use the word in a sentence or context? Technical paper? Variable naming? Every-day vernacular among friends? We have no clue. – Hank Jan 13 '17 at 14:51
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    Questions about specialized terminology are better directed at domain experts than language experts. I might try asking at our sister site, User Experience.SE, for a definitive answer. – choster Jan 13 '17 at 15:00
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because more suited for http://ux.stackexchange.com – k1eran Jan 14 '17 at 22:24
  • @Hank I thought that "in an official documentation for IT system" = "a technical paper" and no more information on context or planned usage is necessary. Your comment to the other answer looks like a perfect answer for this question. However, question itself is off-topic already, so no new answers allowed. – trejder Jan 15 '17 at 18:37
  • @trejder You are correct about the technical paper reference, I missed that. – Hank Jan 15 '17 at 18:49
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    @k1eran If you think it's off-topic, then why did you answer it? Lol – Hank Jan 15 '17 at 18:49
  • @Hank to be honest, I changed my mind - no law against that I believe. – k1eran Jan 15 '17 at 21:41
  • @k1eran Nope. No law against it. Was just curious. – Hank Jan 15 '17 at 21:44
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    @Hank ... and I found the question interesting though it seemed very domain-specific ... I kind of wish I'd not noticed it now and had stayed out of it altogether . – k1eran Jan 15 '17 at 21:50

2 Answers2

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I always found this to be a sort of gray area, but I favor "drop-down list" in technical documentation. Another thread dealt with this nicely. The link specifies grammatically this could be considered a compound adjective, so the hyphen is acceptable. However, the general term "dropdown" appears more often in searches (according to Google) when comapared with a slightly more obscure term like "combobox". This may change as trends change, but for now "dropdown" or "drop-down" seems more widely searched. But, if your document is meant for internal use then you should use whichever word your users or readers may know best.

Community
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christopher m.
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  • I'd agree with this answer. W3schools refers to the element created by a "select" tag as a drop-down list – Christy Jan 13 '17 at 14:33
  • @Christy It really depends on where and how it's used. The OP wouldn't be able to accurately call it a drop-down list if it were in fact a combo box, although there aren't many differences. It would be better with additional information about usage from the OP. – Hank Jan 13 '17 at 14:50
  • @Hank I'd agree that combo box would suit for one where multiple selections can be made. I'm just going off the context from the image. – Christy Jan 13 '17 at 15:00
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    @Christy Comboboxes don't allow multiple selections; that's a listbox. Comboboxes are the same as a drop-down except you can also manually type text into the box like a textbox. From the image, there's no way to know for sure because a combobox can look like that when the options are open. Comboboxes are more prevalent in OOP programming as opposed to HTML. I'm not saying this answer is wrong, I just want the OP to clarify the intended usage. – Hank Jan 13 '17 at 15:02
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According to Oracle the whole thing is a combo box, whereas the drop-down list is part of that combo box.

Quoting a Java Tutorial :

[combo box] ... a text field with a small button abutting it. The user can type a value in the text field or click the button to display a drop-down list.

k1eran
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