Want a!pickerFieldCustom() to do starts with search rather than like search

Question

I am working on version 17.4. 
 I am using a!pickerFieldCustom() to allow users to choose from a text array using an auto-completing picker. The labels as well as the values stored at selection are abbreviations and not long names. 
 The code snippet is as follows: 
 =load(
 local!pickedState,
 local!stateAbbreviations: { "AL", "AK", "AZ", "AR", "CA", "CO", "CT", "DE", "FL", "GA", "HI", "ID", "IL", "IN", "IA", "KS", "KY", "LA", "ME", "MD", "MA", "MI", "MN", "MS", "MO", "MT", "NE", "NV", "NH", "NJ", "NM", "NY", "NC", "ND", "OH", "OK", "OR", "PA", "RI", "SC", "SD", "TN", "TX", "UT", "VT", "VA", "WA", "WV", "WI", "WY" },
 a!pickerFieldCustom(
 label: "State of Residence",
 instructions: "Value saved: " & local!pickedState,
 placeholder: "Type to select the employee's state of residence",
 maxSelections: 1,
 suggestFunction: rule!ucArrayPickerFilter(
 filter:_ , 
 labels: local!stateAbbreviations, 
 identifiers: local!stateAbbreviations
 ),
 selectedLabels: index(local!stateAbbreviations, wherecontains(local!pickedState,local!currencyValues)),,
 value: local!pickedState,
 saveInto: local!pickedState
 )
) 
 In this case what happens that say if user types "A", then the options available to him to choose from are AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, GA, IA, MA, PA, VA, WA; since it searches for A in the entire array. However, my requirement is; it searches for only the values which start with A i.e. it should return only the options AL, AK, AZ, AR to choose from. 
 Any suggestions how to achieve this. 
 Thanks in advance!!

Dan Lluhi · Accepted Answer

Hi, 
 
You'll want to update the logic within rule!ucArrayPickerFilter. If you're using the example from the SAIL Recipe ( docs.appian.com/.../recipe_configure_an_array_picker_that_ignores_duplicates.html) , that expression rule uses fn!search to return any of the labels that match the input anywhere within the label. Instead of using search, you could update that rule to use something like "left(fv!item, len(ri!filter)) = ri!filter" to actually check if the item starts with exactly what's been typed in by the user. 
 
Thanks, 
Dan

Vinay Kumar Rai · Answer

Hi Komal, 
 You need to update the expression ucArrayPickerFilter, 
 
 =with(
 local!matches: where(
 a!forEach(
 items: ri!labels, 
 expression: like( fv!item,ri!filter&"*")
 )
 ),
 a!dataSubset(
 data: index( ri!labels, local!matches), 
 identifiers: index( ri!identifiers, local!matches)
 )
) 
 I used LIKE function instead of SEARCH