# Use controlP5 listBox to select string
**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923
**Category:** Libraries
**Created:** [January 7, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923 "2020-01-07T02:15:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rhole](https://discourse.processing.org/u/rhole)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923/1 "2020-01-07T02:15:59Z")
I am looking at an example from the older forum. I am using version 3.5.3. I can get this sample to work, partially, by commenting out the two lines with “theEvent.group().value()” which give the error “The function value() does not exist.”
Perhaps I am missing a library.
```auto
import controlP5.*;
ControlP5 controlP5;
// add an int variable which will store the
// id of the latest selected listbox item.
int myCurrentIndex = 0;
// make the list of tokens global, then it is
// accessible in both setup and draw
String[] tokens;
void setup( ) {
size(470, 295);
controlP5 = new ControlP5(this);
ListBox l = controlP5.addListBox("myList",20,40,80,200);
// creating an arbitrary String array, add values
// to the array and add new items to the listbox
// at the same time. value of each item added to the listbox
// corresponds to the token in the string array 'tokens'.
tokens = new String[1000];
for (int k = 0; k < tokens.length; k++){
tokens[k] = k+"-item";
l.addItem(tokens[k], k);
}
}
void controlEvent(ControlEvent theEvent) {
if (theEvent.isGroup()) {
// an event from a group e.g. scrollList
println(theEvent.group().value() +" from "+theEvent.group());
// controlEvent is called when a listbox-item
// has been activated, hence update the value
// of myCurrentIndex accordingly
myCurrentIndex = int(theEvent.group().value());
}
}
void draw(){
background(0);
fill(255);
// display and draw a token as text
text(tokens[myCurrentIndex],200,40);
}
```
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### Author:  [@kll](https://discourse.processing.org/u/kll)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 2:42am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923/2 "2020-01-07T02:42:58Z")
sorry, but did you see in the example ListBox following info?
> // ListBox is DEPRECATED,
> // use ScrollableList instead,
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### Author:  [@kfrajer](https://discourse.processing.org/u/kfrajer)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923/3 "2020-01-07T02:50:39Z")
I checked the examples and this is what I found about groups. I do not have the info or docs to describe the proper way to setup groups. However, the following did the trick:
```java
void controlEvent(ControlEvent theEvent) {
myCurrentIndex = int(theEvent.getValue());
println("Watch: " + myCurrentIndex);
}
```
Kf
---
### Author:  [@rhole](https://discourse.processing.org/u/rhole)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 4:03am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/use-controlp5-listbox-to-select-string/16923/4 "2020-01-07T04:03:36Z")
Thanks. Both responses worked. group() is also depricated.