Filtered List Visibility

Hi,

Looking at the examples on the filtered list (link: http://goo.gl/N7wbN) I was wondering if anyone could suggest a way to only show the search field until some text is entered, then show the list below? I would then like to hide the list on select of an item?

Essentially I think this could be used as a quick and easy autocomplete if I could wrap this logic up?

Thanks in advance,

Simon