ListView.View Property (System.Windows.Forms)

View Property

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

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.NET Framework Class Library

ListView..::.View Property

Gets or sets how items are displayed in the control.

Namespace: System.Windows.Forms
Assembly: System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public Property View As View

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As ListView
Dim value As View

value = instance.View

instance.View = value

public View View { get; set; }

Visual C++

public:
property View View {
    View get ();
    void set (View value);
}

JScript

public function get View () : View
public function set View (value : View)

Property Value

Type: System.Windows.Forms..::.View
One of the View values. The default is LargeIcon.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
InvalidEnumArgumentException	The value specified is not one of the View values.

Remarks

The View property allows you to specify the type of display the ListView control uses to display items. You can set the View property to display each item with large or small icons or display items in a vertical list. The richest option is the details view, which allows you to view not only the items but any subitems specified for each item. Each item is displayed in a grid, with each item listed vertically and the subitems for each item displayed in a column, with column headers. The details view is a perfect way to display database information to a user. With Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, you can also display items as tiles that balance graphical and textual information by showing a large icon along with subitem information of your choosing. To enable tile view, your application must call the Application..::.EnableVisualStyles method. The small-image view displays each item with an icon and textual information to the right of the icon. The large-image view displays each item with an icon and textual information below the icon. The size of the icons for the image list is specified by the ImageSize property of the ImageList for the SmallImageList or LargeImageList properties.

Note:
If you are using multiple image lists, for small and large icon view, with a ListView control, you should place small and large versions of the image at the same index location in their respective image lists. When switching between views, the index location of the image in one list is used to locate the image in the other list, regardless of the key value specified.

Most of the properties in the ListView control affect how the different views behave or are displayed. Some properties that affect the views of the items are only useful when the View property is set to a specific value, while others are useful in all views. For example, properties such as GridLines and FullRowSelect are only useful when the View property is set to View..::.Details, while the MultiSelect and CheckBoxes properties are useful in all views.

The following table shows some of the ListView members and the views they are valid in.

ListView member	View
Alignment property	SmallIcon or LargeIcon
AutoArrange property	SmallIcon or LargeIcon
AutoResizeColumn method	Details
CheckBoxes	All views except Tile
Columns property	Details or Tile
DrawSubItem event	Details
FindItemWithText method	Details, List, or Tile
FindNearestItem method	SmallIcon or LargeIcon
GetItemAt method	Details or Tile
Groups property	All views except List
HeaderStyle property	Details
InsertionMark property	LargeIcon, SmallIcon, or Tile

You can use the View property to provide different views of data in your application, or to lock a specific view to utilize that view's benefits. For example, the View property is often set to View..::.Details because the details view provides a number of viewing options not available in the other views.

Note:
If your ListView control does not have any column headers specified and you set the View property to View..::.Details, the ListView control will not display any items. If your ListView control does not have any column headers specified and you set the View property to View..::.Tile, the ListView control will not display any subitems.

The tile view displays each item with a large icon on the left and textual information on the right. The textual information consists of the item label followed by subitems. By default, only the first subitem is displayed, which corresponds to the item label. To display additional subitems, you must add ColumnHeader objects to the Columns collection. Each subitem in the tile corresponds to a column header. To control which subitems are displayed and the order in which they are displayed, you must set the ListViewItem..::.ListViewSubItem..::.Name property for each item and the ColumnHeader..::.Name property for each header. You can then add, remove, and rearrange headers in the Columns collection to achieve the desired result.

To control the size of the tiles in the tile view, set the TileSize property. This is useful to prevent line-wrapping when subitem text is too long for a single line.

For an example of the tile view, see the TileSize property.

Note:
Although columns are only displayed in the details view, subitems without column headers will not display in either the details view or the tile view.

The tile view is available only on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 when your application calls the Application..::.EnableVisualStyles method. On earlier operating systems, any code related to the tile view has no effect, and the ListView control displays in the large icon view. As a result, any code that depends on the tile view might not work correctly.

You might want to include code that determines whether tile view is available, and provide alternate functionality when it is unavailable. For example, when you use owner drawing to customize the appearance of ListView items in the tile view, you might want to use drawing code appropriate to the large icon view when running on operating systems that do not support the tile view.

The tile view feature is provided by the same library that provides the operating system themes feature. To check for the availability of this library, call the FeatureSupport..::.IsPresent(Object) method overload and pass in the OSFeature..::.Themes value.

Examples

The following code example creates a ListView control with three ListViewItem objects specified and three ListViewItem..::.ListViewSubItem objects specified for each item. The example also creates ColumnHeader objects to display the subitems in details view. Two ImageList objects are also created in the code example to provide images for the ListViewItem objects. These ImageList objects are added to the LargeImageList and SmallImageList properties. The example uses the following properties in creating the ListView control.

This example requires that you have added the code to a Form and call the method created in the example from the constructor or another method on the form. The example also requires that images named MySmallImage1, MySmallImage2, MyLargeImage1, and MyLargeImage2 are located in the root directory of drive C.

Visual Basic

Private Sub CreateMyListView()
    ' Create a new ListView control.
    Dim listView1 As New ListView()
    listView1.Bounds = New Rectangle(New Point(10, 10), New Size(300, 200))

    ' Set the view to show details.
    listView1.View = View.Details
    ' Allow the user to edit item text.
    listView1.LabelEdit = True
    ' Allow the user to rearrange columns.
    listView1.AllowColumnReorder = True
    ' Display check boxes.
    listView1.CheckBoxes = True
    ' Select the item and subitems when selection is made.
    listView1.FullRowSelect = True
    ' Display grid lines.
    listView1.GridLines = True
    ' Sort the items in the list in ascending order.
    listView1.Sorting = SortOrder.Ascending

    ' Create three items and three sets of subitems for each item.
    Dim item1 As New ListViewItem("item1", 0)
    ' Place a check mark next to the item.
    item1.Checked = True
    item1.SubItems.Add("1")
    item1.SubItems.Add("2")
    item1.SubItems.Add("3")
    Dim item2 As New ListViewItem("item2", 1)
    item2.SubItems.Add("4")
    item2.SubItems.Add("5")
    item2.SubItems.Add("6")
    Dim item3 As New ListViewItem("item3", 0)
    ' Place a check mark next to the item.
    item3.Checked = True
    item3.SubItems.Add("7")
    item3.SubItems.Add("8")
    item3.SubItems.Add("9")

    ' Create columns for the items and subitems.
    listView1.Columns.Add("Item Column", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left)
    listView1.Columns.Add("Column 2", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left)
    listView1.Columns.Add("Column 3", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left)
    listView1.Columns.Add("Column 4", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Center)

    'Add the items to the ListView.
    listView1.Items.AddRange(New ListViewItem() {item1, item2, item3})

    ' Create two ImageList objects.
    Dim imageListSmall As New ImageList()
    Dim imageListLarge As New ImageList()

    ' Initialize the ImageList objects with bitmaps.
    imageListSmall.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\MySmallImage1.bmp"))
    imageListSmall.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\MySmallImage2.bmp"))
    imageListLarge.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\MyLargeImage1.bmp"))
    imageListLarge.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\MyLargeImage2.bmp"))

    'Assign the ImageList objects to the ListView.
    listView1.LargeImageList = imageListLarge
    listView1.SmallImageList = imageListSmall

    ' Add the ListView to the control collection.
    Me.Controls.Add(listView1)
End Sub 'CreateMyListView

        private void CreateMyListView()
        {
            // Create a new ListView control.
            ListView listView1 = new ListView();
            listView1.Bounds = new Rectangle(new Point(10,10), new Size(300,200));

            // Set the view to show details.
            listView1.View = View.Details;
            // Allow the user to edit item text.
            listView1.LabelEdit = true;
            // Allow the user to rearrange columns.
            listView1.AllowColumnReorder = true;
            // Display check boxes.
            listView1.CheckBoxes = true;
            // Select the item and subitems when selection is made.
            listView1.FullRowSelect = true;
            // Display grid lines.
            listView1.GridLines = true;
            // Sort the items in the list in ascending order.
            listView1.Sorting = SortOrder.Ascending;
                        
            // Create three items and three sets of subitems for each item.
            ListViewItem item1 = new ListViewItem("item1",0);
            // Place a check mark next to the item.
            item1.Checked = true;
            item1.SubItems.Add("1");
            item1.SubItems.Add("2");
            item1.SubItems.Add("3");
            ListViewItem item2 = new ListViewItem("item2",1);
            item2.SubItems.Add("4");
            item2.SubItems.Add("5");
            item2.SubItems.Add("6");
            ListViewItem item3 = new ListViewItem("item3",0);
            // Place a check mark next to the item.
            item3.Checked = true;
            item3.SubItems.Add("7");
            item3.SubItems.Add("8");
            item3.SubItems.Add("9");

            // Create columns for the items and subitems.
            listView1.Columns.Add("Item Column", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left);
            listView1.Columns.Add("Column 2", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left);
            listView1.Columns.Add("Column 3", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Left);
            listView1.Columns.Add("Column 4", -2, HorizontalAlignment.Center);

            //Add the items to the ListView.
                    listView1.Items.AddRange(new ListViewItem[]{item1,item2,item3});

            // Create two ImageList objects.
            ImageList imageListSmall = new ImageList();
            ImageList imageListLarge = new ImageList();

            // Initialize the ImageList objects with bitmaps.
            imageListSmall.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\\MySmallImage1.bmp"));
            imageListSmall.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\\MySmallImage2.bmp"));
            imageListLarge.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\\MyLargeImage1.bmp"));
            imageListLarge.Images.Add(Bitmap.FromFile("C:\\MyLargeImage2.bmp"));

            //Assign the ImageList objects to the ListView.
            listView1.LargeImageList = imageListLarge;
            listView1.SmallImageList = imageListSmall;

            // Add the ListView to the control collection.
            this.Controls.Add(listView1);
        }

Visual C++

private:
   void CreateMyListView()
   {
      // Create a new ListView control.
      ListView^ listView1 = gcnew ListView;
      listView1->Bounds = Rectangle(Point(10,10),System::Drawing::Size( 300, 200 ));

      // Set the view to show details.
      listView1->View = View::Details;

      // Allow the user to edit item text.
      listView1->LabelEdit = true;

      // Allow the user to rearrange columns.
      listView1->AllowColumnReorder = true;

      // Display check boxes.
      listView1->CheckBoxes = true;

      // Select the item and subitems when selection is made.
      listView1->FullRowSelect = true;

      // Display grid lines.
      listView1->GridLines = true;

      // Sort the items in the list in ascending order.
      listView1->Sorting = SortOrder::Ascending;

      // Create three items and three sets of subitems for each item.
      ListViewItem^ item1 = gcnew ListViewItem( "item1",0 );

      // Place a check mark next to the item.
      item1->Checked = true;
      item1->SubItems->Add( "1" );
      item1->SubItems->Add( "2" );
      item1->SubItems->Add( "3" );
      ListViewItem^ item2 = gcnew ListViewItem( "item2",1 );
      item2->SubItems->Add( "4" );
      item2->SubItems->Add( "5" );
      item2->SubItems->Add( "6" );
      ListViewItem^ item3 = gcnew ListViewItem( "item3",0 );

      // Place a check mark next to the item.
      item3->Checked = true;
      item3->SubItems->Add( "7" );
      item3->SubItems->Add( "8" );
      item3->SubItems->Add( "9" );

      // Create columns for the items and subitems.
      listView1->Columns->Add( "Item Column", -2, HorizontalAlignment::Left );
      listView1->Columns->Add( "Column 2", -2, HorizontalAlignment::Left );
      listView1->Columns->Add( "Column 3", -2, HorizontalAlignment::Left );
      listView1->Columns->Add( "Column 4", -2, HorizontalAlignment::Center );

      //Add the items to the ListView.
      array<ListViewItem^>^temp1 = {item1,item2,item3};
      listView1->Items->AddRange( temp1 );

      // Create two ImageList objects.
      ImageList^ imageListSmall = gcnew ImageList;
      ImageList^ imageListLarge = gcnew ImageList;

      // Initialize the ImageList objects with bitmaps.
      imageListSmall->Images->Add( Bitmap::FromFile( "C:\\MySmallImage1.bmp" ) );
      imageListSmall->Images->Add( Bitmap::FromFile( "C:\\MySmallImage2.bmp" ) );
      imageListLarge->Images->Add( Bitmap::FromFile( "C:\\MyLargeImage1.bmp" ) );
      imageListLarge->Images->Add( Bitmap::FromFile( "C:\\MyLargeImage2.bmp" ) );

      //Assign the ImageList objects to the ListView.
      listView1->LargeImageList = imageListLarge;
      listView1->SmallImageList = imageListSmall;

      // Add the ListView to the control collection.
      this->Controls->Add( listView1 );
   }

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

Reference

ListView Class

ListView Members

System.Windows.Forms Namespace

View

TileSize

Application..::.EnableVisualStyles