How to Use Categories in a Table as the Item List in a Control Box

Typing in the Control options in the Item List field can be tedious, is prone to error, and won't be updated automatically if new codes are added to your variable later. You can automate the options or add many at a time by providing a table of options instead. This article describes how to use a table to create a long list of items to appear in a Control's item list. You will go from a table with a long list of items (such as a list of countries found online)...

...to the same list appearing in a Control box item list, or as a List Box item menu:

Requirements

A Control Box control manually created via Control in the toolbar (see How to Create a Combo Box Filter or How to Create a List Box Filter).
A table with a list of items to show in the control, either:
- A pasted table - in this example, we use the pasted table above of a list of countries, see How to Paste or Enter Data.
- A built-in table with the items in the row headers.
- An R table with the items as row headers or in the first column (if the rows are numbered).

Method

Select the table with items you want to provide to the Control box.
Make sure your table has a relevant name in the General > General > Name in the object inspector , such as Country_List in this example.
Select your control box or insert a new one by clicking Control > Combo Box (Drop-down) or List Box from the toolbar.
With the control selected, go to the object inspector > Control > Item List and delete First option; Second option, leaving the menu empty.
Click into the Items from field and then click on your table from step 1 (eg Country_List) to use the values as the items in the Control.
[Optional]: Depending on your requirements, you can change Selection mode from Single selection to Multiple selection and configure other options.
[Optional]: If you want to use this Control to filter outputs, see How to create the filter and link it to the Combo Box control for the instructions to create a filter variable to link the second combo box to.