List View Control in C#

The ListView Control
The list from which you select files to open in the standard dialog boxes in Windows is a ListView control Everything you can do to the view in the standard list view dialog (large icons, details view, and so on). 
     The list view is usually used to present data where the user is allowed some control over the detail and style of the presentation. It is possible to display the data contained in the control as columns and rows much like in a grid, as a single column or in with varying icon representations. The most commonly used list view is like the one seen above which is used to navigate the folders on a computer.

ListView Control Property 

Name	Availability	Description
Activation	Read/Write	By using this property, you can control how a user activates an item in the list view. You should not change the default setting unless you have a good reason for doing so, because you will be altering a setting that the user have set for his or her entire system. The possible values are: Standard: This setting is that which the user has chosen for his or her machine. OneClick: Clicking an item activates it. TwoClick: Double-clicking an item activates it.
Alignment	Read/Write	his property allows you to control how the items in the list view are aligned. The four possible values are: Default: If the user drags and drops an item it remains where he or she dropped it. Left: Items are aligned to the left edge of the ListView control. Top: Items are aligned to the top edge of the ListView control. SnapToGrid: The ListView control contains an invisible grid to which the items will snap.
AllowColumn Reorder	Read/Write	If you set this property to true, you allow the user to change the order of the columns in a list view. If you do so, you should be sure that the routines that fill the list view are able to insert the items properly, even after the order of the columns is changed.
AutoArrange	Read/Write	If you set this property to true, items will automatically arrange themselves according to the Alignment property. If the user drags an item to the center of the list view, and Alignment is Left, then the item will automatically jump to the left of the list view. This property is only meaningful if the View property is LargeIcon or SmallIcon.
CheckBoxes	Read/Write	If you set this property to true, every item in the list view will have a CheckBox displayed to the left of it. This property is only meaningful if the View property is Details or List.
CheckedIndices CheckedItems	Read-only	These two properties gives you access to a collection of indices and items, respectively, containing the checked items in the list.
Columns	Read-only	A list view can contain columns. This property gives you access to the collection of columns through which you can add or remove columns.
FocusedItem	Read-only	This property holds the item that has focus in the list view. If nothing is selected, it is null.
FullRowSelect	Read/Write	When this property is true, and an item is clicked, the entire row in which the item resides will be highlighted. If it is false, only the item itself will be highlighted.
GridLines	Read/Write	Setting this property to true will cause the list view to draw grid lines between rows and columns. This property is only meaningful when the View property is Details.
HeaderStyle	Read/Write	You can control how the column headers are displayed. There are three styles: Clickable: The column header works like a button. NonClickable: The column headers do not respond to mouse clicks. None: The column headers are not displayed.
HoverSelection	Read/Write	When this property is true, the user can select an item in the list view by hovering the mouse pointer over it.
Items	Read-only	The collection of items in the list view.
LabelEdit	Read/Write	When this property is true, the user can edit the content of the first column in a Details view.
LabelWrap	Read/Write	If this property is true, labels will wrap over as many lines is needed to display all of the text.
LargeImageList	Read/Write	This property holds the ImageList, which holds large images. These images can be used when the View property is LargeIcon.
MultiSelect	Read/Write	Set this property to true to allow the user to select multiple items.
Scrollable	Read/Write	Set this property to true to display scrollbars.
SelectedIndices SelectedItems	Read-only	These two properties contain the collections that hold the indices and items that are selected, respectively.
SmallImageList	Read/Write	When the View property is SmallIcon this property holds the ImageList that contain the images used.
Sorting	Read/Write	You can allow the list view to sort the items it contains. There are three possible modes: Ascending Descending None
StateImageList	Read/Write	The ImageList contains masks for images that are used as overlays on the LargeImageList and SmallImageList images to represent custom states.
TopItem	Read-only	Returns the item at the top of the list view.
View	Read/Write	A list view can display its items in four different modes: LargeIcon: All items are displayed with a large icon (32x32) and a label. SmallIcon: All items are displayed with a small icon (16x16) and a label. List: Only one column is displayed. That column can contain an icon and a label Details: Any number of columns can be displayed. Only the first column can contain an icon.

ListView Methods

Name	Description
BeginUpdate	By calling this method, you tell the list view to stop drawing updates until EndUpdate is called. This is useful when you are inserting many items at once, because it stops the view from flickering and dramatically increases speed.
Clear	Clears the list view completely. All items and columns are removed.
EndUpdate	Call this method after calling BeginUpdate. When you call this method, the list view will draw all of its items.
EnsureVisible	When you call this method, the list view will scroll itself to make the item with the index you specified visible.
GetItemAt	Returns the item at position x, y in the list view.

ListView Events
 

Name	Description
AfterLabelEdit	This event occurs after a label have been edited
BeforeLabelEdit	This event occurs before a user begins editing a label
ColumnClick	This event occurs when a column is clicked
ItemActivate	Occurs when an item is activated

ListViewItem
The ListViewItem holds information such as text and the index of the icon to display. ListViewItems have a collection called SubItems that holds instances of another class, ListViewSubItem. These sub items are displayed if the ListView control is in Details mode.
  ColumnHeader
To make a list view display column headers, you add instances of a class called ColumnHeader to the Columns collection of the ListView. ColumnHeaders provide a caption for the columns that can be displayed when the ListView is in Details mode.
  The ImageList Control
The ImageList control provides a collection that can be used to store images that is used in other controls on your form. You can store images of any size in an image list, but within each control every image must be of the same size. In the case of the ListView, which means that you need two ImageList controls to be able to display both large and small images.

Example of Listview Control

  For using Listview Control make your window form design view like following image. And change controls property according to your choice. Take       2 listimage Control name as Large_Image and small_image and add images in that collection property and set large_image size 32X32.

                                            

Write code on Form Loading for holding folders like below-
 

private System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection folderCol; public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { folderCol = new System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection(); CreateHeadersAndFillListView(); PaintListView(@"D:\"); folderCol.Add(@"D:\"); this.lwFilesAndFolders.ItemActivate += new System.EventHandler(this.lwFilesAndFolders_ItemActivate); }

Code for Creating Header and ListView in ListView Control.

                                                         

private void CreateHeadersAndFillListView() { ColumnHeader colHead; // First header colHead = new ColumnHeader(); colHead.Text = "Filename"; this.lwFilesAndFolders.Columns.Add(colHead); // Insert the header // Second header colHead = new ColumnHeader(); colHead.Text = "Size"; this.lwFilesAndFolders.Columns.Add(colHead); // Insert the header // Third header colHead = new ColumnHeader(); colHead.Text = "Last accessed"; this.lwFilesAndFolders.Columns.Add(colHead); // Insert the header }

                                            
Code for ListView

private void PaintListView(string root) { try { // Two local variables that is used to create the items to insert ListViewItem lvi; ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem lvsi; // If there's no root folder, we can't insert anything if (root.CompareTo("") == 0) return; // Get information about the root folder. System.IO.DirectoryInfo dir = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(root); // Retrieve the files and folders from the root folder. DirectoryInfo[] dirs = dir.GetDirectories(); // Folders FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles(); // Files // Clear the ListView. Note that we call the Clear method on the // Items collection rather than on the ListView itself. // The Clear method of the ListView remove everything, including column // headers, and we only want to remove the items from the view. this.lwFilesAndFolders.Items.Clear(); // Set the label with the current path this.lblCurrentPath.Text = root; // Lock the ListView for updates this.lwFilesAndFolders.BeginUpdate(); // Loop through all folders in the root folder and insert them foreach (System.IO.DirectoryInfo di in dirs) { // Create the main ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(); lvi.Text = di.Name; // Folder name lvi.ImageIndex = 0; // The folder icon has index 0 lvi.Tag = di.FullName; // Set the tag to the qualified path of the // folder // Create the two ListViewSubItems. lvsi = new ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem(); lvsi.Text = ""; // Size - a folder has no size and so this column // is empty lvi.SubItems.Add(lvsi); // Add the sub item to the ListViewItem lvsi = new ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem(); lvsi.Text = di.LastAccessTime.ToString(); // Last accessed column lvi.SubItems.Add(lvsi); // Add the sub item to the ListViewItem // Add the ListViewItem to the Items collection of the ListView this.lwFilesAndFolders.Items.Add(lvi); } // Loop through all the files in the root folder foreach (System.IO.FileInfo fi in files) { // Create the main ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(); lvi.Text = fi.Name; // Filename lvi.ImageIndex = 1; // The icon we use to represent a folder has // index 1 lvi.Tag = fi.FullName; // Set the tag to the qualified path of the // file // Create the two sub items lvsi = new ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem(); lvsi.Text = fi.Length.ToString(); // Length of the file lvi.SubItems.Add(lvsi); // Add to the SubItems collection lvsi = new ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem(); lvsi.Text = fi.LastAccessTime.ToString(); // Last Accessed Column lvi.SubItems.Add(lvsi); // Add to the SubItems collection // Add the item to the Items collection of the ListView this.lwFilesAndFolders.Items.Add(lvi); } // Unlock the ListView. The items that have been inserted will now // be displayed this.lwFilesAndFolders.EndUpdate(); } catch (System.Exception err) { MessageBox.Show("Error: " + err.Message); } }

Code for Listview Control for activating items

private void lwFilesAndFolders_ItemActivate(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Cast the sender to a ListView and get the tag of the first selected // item. System.Windows.Forms.ListView lw = (System.Windows.Forms.ListView)sender; string filename = lw.SelectedItems[0].Tag.ToString(); if (lw.SelectedItems[0].ImageIndex != 0) { try { // Attempt to run the file System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(filename); } catch { // If the attempt fails we simply exit the method return; } } else { // Insert the items PaintListView(filename); folderCol.Add(filename); } }

                                        
Code for making small icons view. Write below code on radio button named small icon

private void rdoSmallIcon_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { RadioButton rdb = (RadioButton)sender; if (rdb.Checked) this.lwFilesAndFolders.View = View.List; }

Code for making large icons view. Write below code on radio button named large icon

private void rdoLargeIcon_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { RadioButton rdb = (RadioButton)sender; if (rdb.Checked) this.lwFilesAndFolders.View = View.LargeIcon; }