HOWTO: Add Full Row Select Functionality to a ListView Control

• Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0

SUMMARY

The default behavior of the ListView control, when in Report View, is the ability to select only the item on the far left of the list. If you try to select any of the sub-items, nothing happens. Only the first item is available to be selected.

You can avoid this limitation by adding a ListView extended style, LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECT, to the current ListView style. With this extended style you can select any sub-item and the entire row will be selected.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Start a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

2. Select Components on the Project menu. Click the check box next to "Microsoft Windows Common Controls 5.0," and then click OK.

3. Add a ListView control (ListView1) to Form1.

4. Add a CommandButton (Command1) to Form1.

5. Add the following code to the Form module:

         Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
           "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal _
           wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
   
         Const LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECT = &H20
         Const LVM_FIRST = &H1000
         Const LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = LVM_FIRST + &H37
         Const LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = LVM_FIRST + &H36
   
         Private Sub Command1_Click()
           Dim lStyle As Long
           lStyle = SendMessage(ListView1.hwnd, _
              LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE, 0, 0)
           lStyle = IStyle Or LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECT
           Call SendMessage(ListView1.hwnd, LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE, _
              0, ByVal lStyle)
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub Form_Load()
           'Add two Column Headers to the ListView control
           Set clmAdd = ListView1.ColumnHeaders.Add(Text:="Name")
           Set clmAdd = ListView1.ColumnHeaders.Add(Text:="Date")
   
           'Set the view property of the Listview control to Report view
           ListView1.View = lvwReport
   
           'Add data to the ListView control
           Set itmAdd = ListView1.ListItems.Add(Text:="Joe")
           itmAdd.SubItems(1) = "05/07/97"
   
           Set itmAdd = ListView1.ListItems.Add(Text:="Sally")
           itmAdd.SubItems(1) = "04/08/97"
   
           Set itmAdd = ListView1.ListItems.Add(Text:="Bill")
           itmAdd.SubItems(1) = "05/29/97"
   
           Set itmAdd = ListView1.ListItems.Add(Text:="Fred")
           itmAdd.SubItems(1) = "05/17/97"
   
           Set itmAdd = ListView1.ListItems.Add(Text:="Anne")
           itmAdd.SubItems(1) = "04/01/97"
         End Sub
   
   

6. Press the F5 key to start the program. Click one of the entries in the Date column and observe that nothing occurs. Click on an entry in the Name column and note that only the name is highlighted.

7. Click the command button and then click on entries in each column. Note that an entire row can now be selected by clicking an item in either column.

Keywords          : vb5all vb5howto
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto