Best GUI Element to Display Mass Data

[hannehomuth]

Hello Everyone,

I think (hope) I will start a little Discussion here. I working on a GUI for an application, which should display a lot of users. I mean you shall be able to select one of the users outa a big mass (1000 +). It's not the only thing what this application should do, there is more in, you know. And now my question, what you think will be the best GUI Element for displaying such a big mass, in regard of usability and the time you will have to bring up to find someone?

[Norm]

A sorted tree

[jurka]

yeha you could use many components table, list, tree, but what i think is that it depends how you get your data into component.

[hannehomuth]

mhm ok, how I will get the data in there is not known yet. But this doesn't matter I will code a workaround if a gui element does not accept such a structure I will get. But I think a list is not this what i want. If I think about 1000+ Persons it is not good to scroll 20 min down to find Mr. X.

I could, or I will add some kind of search function and some kind of keyListeners which jumps to eg. all persons which starts with M if i type the key m but imagine if you search the name "Müller" which appers very very often in Germany you might get a list with 50 or more persons and then I list will not work. I mean it will work, but I think its not usable. You now? I think a sorted Tree is a good option but maybe some better available?