ListView in C#

ListView ListView1 = new ListView(); 

ListView1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);  
ListView1.Name = "ListView1";  
ListView1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(245, 200);  
ListView1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Orange;  
ListView1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;   

Controls.Add(ListView1);  

ListView1.Name = "ListView1";  

ListView1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);  
ListView1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(245, 200);  

ListView1.Font = new Font("Georgia", 16);  

ListView1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Orange;  
ListView1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;   

ListView1.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;

Figure 5

The ListView looks as in Figure 6.

Figure 6

You can add some items at run-time by using the following code snippet:

ListView1.Items.Add("Mahesh Chand");  
ListView1.Items.Add("Mike Gold");  
ListView1.Items.Add("Praveen Kumar");  
ListView1.Items.Add("Raj Beniwal");

Getting All ListView Items

To get all items, we use the Items property and loop through it to read all the items. The following code snippet loops through all items and adds item contents to a StringBuilder and displays them in a MessageBox.

private void GetItemsButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
{  
    System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();  
    foreach (object item in ListView1.Items)  
    {  
        sb.Append(item.ToString());  
        sb.Append(" ");  
    }  
    MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString());  
}

Get ListView Selected Text and Selected Item

The Text property is used to set and get text of a ListView. The following code snippet sets and gets the current text of a ListView:

MessageBox.Show(ListView1.Text);

We can also get text associated with the currently selected item by using the Items property, as in:

string selectedItem = ListView1.Items[ListView1.SelectedIndex].ToString(); 

Why is the value of ListView.SelectedText Empty?

The SelectedText property gets and sets the selected text in a ListView only when a ListView has focus on it. If the focus moves away from a ListView, then the value of SelectedText will be an empty string. To get the current text in a ListView when it does not have the focus, use the Text property.

Selection Mode and Selecting Items in ListView

The SelectionMode property defines how items are selected in a ListView. The SelectionMode value can be one of the following four SelectionMode enumeration values:

• None: No item can be selected.
• One: Only one item can be selected.
• MultiSimple: Multiple items can be selected.
• MultiExtended: Multiple items can be selected, and the user can use the SHIFT, CTRL, and arrow keys to make selections.

To select an item in a ListView, we can use the SetSelect method that takes an item index and a true or false value where the true value represents the item to be selected.

The following code snippet sets a ListView to allow multiple selections and selects the second and third items in the list:

ListView1.SelectionMode = SelectionMode.MultiSimple;  
ListView1.SetSelected(1, true);  
ListView1.SetSelected(2, true);  

We can clear all selected items by calling the ClearSelected method, as in:

ListView1.ClearSelected();

How to disable item selection in a ListView?

Just set SelectionMode property to None.

Sorting Items of a ListView

If the Sorted property is set to true, then the ListView items are sorted. The following code snippet sorts the ListView items:

ListView1.Sorted = true;  

Find Items in ListView

The FindString method is used to find a string or substring in a ListView. The following code snippet finds a string in a ListView and selects it if found:

private void FindItemButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
{  
    ListView1.ClearSelected();  
    int index = ListView1.FindString(textBox1.Text);  
    if (index < 0)  
    {  
        MessageBox.Show("Item not found.");  
        textBox1.Text = String.Empty;  
    }  
    else  
   {  
        ListView1.SelectedIndex = index;  
    }  
}

ListView SelectedIndexChanged Event Hander

The SelectedIndexChanged event is fired when the item selection is changed in a ListView. You can add the event handler using the Properties Widow and selecting the Event icon and double-clicking on SelectedIndexChanged as you can see in Figure 7.

Figure 7

The following code snippet defines and implements these events and their respective event handlers. You can use this same code to implement an event at run-time.

ListView1.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(ListView1_SelectedIndexChanged);  
private void ListView1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)  
{  
    MessageBox.Show(ListView1.SelectedItem.ToString());  
}

Now every time you change the selection in the ListView, you will see the selected item displayed in a MessageBox.

Data Binding

The DataSource property is used to bind a collection of items to a ListView. The following code snippet is a simple data binding example where an ArrayList is bound to a ListView.

private void DataBindingButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
{  
    ArrayList authors = new ArrayList();  
    authors.Add("Mahesh Chand");  
    authors.Add("Mike Gold");  
    authors.Add("Raj Kumar");  
    authors.Add("Praveen Kumar");  
    ListView1.Items.Clear();  
    ListView1.Items = authors;  
}

If you are binding an object with multiple properites, you must specify which property you are displaying by using the DisplayMember property, as in:

ListView1.DataSource = GetData();  
ListView1.DisplayMember = "Name";  

Summary

In this article, we discussed how to create a ListView control in Windows Forms. After that, we saw how to use various properties and methods. I am planning to extend this article to add more topics including multiple columns, multiple views, header with images and so on.

Further Readings

Here are some more articles and tutorials about ListView that you may want to read:

• Transferring data from one ListBox to another in WPF
• Owner Draw ListView Control with Images
• Editable ListView in C#
• Databinding in ListView from XML file
• Using ListView in C#
• Adding & Retrieving items from ListView and check list box
• Owner Draw ListView Control in Windows Forms and C#
• Editable ListView Control
• Adding Items to a ListBox
• Checked ListBox Control In C#
• Editable ListView Control