Which Winapi listview type to use

Question

I need to create a list view using WINAPI and MINGW (No possibility of MFC, WTF or any of the sort. Pure C/C++ and WINAPI), but i am not sure which list type to use for the easiest solution.

The listview items will be ownerdrawn, and it requires items to be in lines with fixed item widths.

|-----------------------|
| item1 | item2 | item3 |
|-----------------------|
| item4 | item5 | item6 |
|-----------------------|
| item7 | item8 | item9 |
|-----------------------|

What list type should i use for the easiest solution:

LVS_REPORT with ownerdrawn items and subitems. (a lot of custom msg handling)
LVS_ICON with custom width fixing. (not sure how to do it)
LVS_LIST ??
???

Any win32 programming wizard out there, who knows how i could accomplish my goal without much headache ?

Update

Ok i got it. TLDR; solution is to get the cursor position from the user clicked, then do a subitemhittest and find out on which item/subitem the user clicked. Then set that item/subitem to LVIS_SELECTED. But you do have to ownerdraw the list, because windows does not support subitem column selecting natively.

Thx to nariuji and fluter for their supporting tips and tricks.

Icon view will list it in that order. Owner draw version is not easy. See this post for hints stackoverflow.com/a/36443401/4603670 — Barmak Shemirani

nariuji nariuji · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-17T13:23:53

custom draw:
It is able to be change item's fonts and a back-ground color, and so on.
It is a functionality for LVS_REPORT and LVS_ICON

DWORD OnPrePaint(int nID, LPNMCUSTOMDRAW lpnmcd) {
    if(lpnmcd->hdr.idFrom == IDC_MY_LISTVIEW)  // my list view's ID
        return CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW;            // custom draw
    else
        return CDRF_DODEFAULT;
}
DWORD OnItemPrePaint(int nID, LPNMCUSTOMDRAW lpnmcd) {
    if(lpnmcd->hdr.idFrom == IDC_MY_LISTVIEW){
        LPNMLVCUSTOMDRAW lpnmlv = (LPNMLVCUSTOMDRAW)lpnmcd;
        if(lpnmcd->dwItemSpec % 2) {            // change color
            lpnmlv->clrText = RGB(255, 255, 255);
            lpnmlv->clrTextBk = RGB(128, 128, 128);
        }
    }
    return CDRF_DODEFAULT;
}

owner draw:
It is necessary that all drawing code are written.
It is a functionality for only a style of LVS_REPORT.

void DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItemStruct) {
    CDC* pDC = CDC::FromHandle(lpDrawItemStruct->hDC);
    int nItem = lpDrawItemStruct->itemID;
    LV_ITEM lvi;
    lvi.mask = LVIF_IMAGE | LVIF_STATE | LVIF_PARAM;
    lvi.iItem = nItem;
    lvi.iSubItem = 0;
    lvi.stateMask = 0xFFFF;
    GetItem(&lvi);

    // selected item color
    if (lvi.state & LVIS_SELECTED) {
        CBrush cb(::GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHT));
        pDC->FillRect(rcItem, &cb);
    }
    else {
        // stripe color
        if (nItem % 2) {
            CBrush cb(::GetSysColor(LTGRAY_BRUSH));
            pDC->FillRect(rcItem, &cb);
        }
    }

    // draw text
    CRect rectText;
    GetItemRect(nItem, rectText, LVIR_LABEL);
    CString strData = GetItemText(nItem, 0);
    pDC->DrawText(strData, rectText, DT_LEFT | DT_SINGLELINE | DT_NOPREFIX | DT_VCENTER);
}

Which Winapi listview type to use

2 Answers