Complete using match in middle of string - work with pop-up list?

Question

I'm trying to use auto-complete to match in the middle of a string (after the characters ::). I'd like to typing a then hit tab and have the list of candidates appear 'in full' e.g. fruit::apples, others::apples, veg::asparagus.

So far, I'm approaching this using an alist:

(setq l1 '(("apples"  "fruit::apples")
       ("apples"  "other::apples")
       ("bananas"  "fruit::bananas")
       ("asparagus"  "veg::asparagus")))

The completions are matched to the car of each element in l1 but return the cdr. The 'prefix' part always ends with :: and I would prefer to avoid using alternatives such as fruit-apples...

Here is a function which prompts in the minibuffer and can display a list of candidates in another window:

(defun f1 () "
Replaces text at point with completion, including the appropriate prefix"
       (interactive)
       ;; ac1 = all completions
       ;; lc1 = list of completions
       (let ((tap1 (thing-at-point 'symbol))
         ac1
         (lc1 ())
         (resize-mini-windows t)
         (p1 (point))
         elem1 r1)
     (when (not tap1) (set 'tap1 ""))
     (set 'ac1 (all-completions tap1 l1))
     (mapc (lambda (elem1)
         (when (member (car elem1) ac1)
           (push (cdr elem1) lc1)))
           l1)
     (set  'lc1 (mapcar (lambda (x) (print (car x))) lc1))
     (set 'elem1 (concat "Complete " tap1 " (TAB for selection) : "))
     (set 'r1 (completing-read elem1 lc1))
     (delete-region (- p1 (length tap1)) p1)
     (insert r1)))

so that if I call f1 when at text that says a I can replace it as desired.

Now, is there any way to adapt auto-complete to behave like this? I've been going through the source files and can't figure out where I should replace the usual list of (all-completions STRING COLLECTION) with the list which includes the prefixes.

Is there a simpler way to do this? Should I be looking at company-mode instead?

Answer 1

Even with vanilla Emacs you can do this, just by using completing-read and looking up the car in I1. If the cars are unique then assoc is all you need.

(cadr (assoc (completing-read "Choose: " I1) I1))