Dynamically Highlight Elements in a List Control

Download demo project - 14 Kb

Just type a name it gets highlighted!

Introduction

It seems more and more like my projects revolve around the List Control in some form or another. I also seem to be using CodeProject more and more to find out how to do things in my code.

One day, I came across Michael Dunn's excellent article Neat Stuff to do in List Controls Using Custom Draw and it got me to thinking about how to do some really functional stuff with a list control.

I had recently done a project where certain attributes were displayed in a list control. And, at the time, I thought it would be neat if I could color text in a column based on certain criteria, specifically, the text in the cell. Well, due to time constraints, that feature never made it into the project.

But, since then, I've had time to revisit, and have come up with that functionality in this little application.

Simply type in a name in the edit box, and if the name is found in the List Control, it's highlighted yellow and it's text is changed to red.

The specifics of Custom Draw in a List Control are presented in Michael's article, and I've tried to document the code nicely.

Enjoy!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Coleman Brumley

United States

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nice code

sally8998

15:48 12 Dec '11

Thanks for the code! It really help. My problem is now solved.
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Thanks!

lucy

9:38 15 Feb '11

neat article!
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Great article!

monimicki

17:14 21 Oct '04

This download was just what I was looking for. I wanted to colour individual rows according to whether the text in the first column was the same as that in the previous column - and I coloured the whole line, not just individual items... Only problem is, when you scroll the list view, it doesnt properly paint the items that you have to scroll to to see... So, I'd like to find out how to fix that!!
But anyway, here's how I did the individual coloring:

void CViewOrders::OnCustomList ( NMHDR* pNMHDR, LRESULT* pResult )
{

// This function is based on information I found at The Code Project website.
// I used two articles, one by Michael Dunn found at:
// http://www.thecodeproject.com/listctrl/lvcustomdraw.asp
// And the second by Coleman Brumley found at:
// http://www.thecodeproject.com/listctrl/highlightlistctrl.asp

NMLVCUSTOMDRAW* pLVCD = reinterpret_cast( pNMHDR );

// Take the default processing unless we set this to something else below.
*pResult = CDRF_DODEFAULT;

// First thing - check the draw stage. If it's the control's prepaint
// stage, then tell Windows we want messages for every item.

if ( CDDS_PREPAINT == pLVCD->nmcd.dwDrawStage )
{
*pResult = CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW;
}
else if ( CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT == pLVCD->nmcd.dwDrawStage )
{
COLORREF crText;

int nItem = static_cast( pLVCD->nmcd.dwItemSpec );

CString Laststr=" ";
CString strTemp = m_OList.GetItemText(nItem,0);
if (nItem>0)
Laststr = m_OList.GetItemText((nItem-1),0);

if(strTemp == Laststr)
{
crText=ChangeCol(1);
}
else
{
crText=ChangeCol(0);
}

// Store the color back in the NMLVCUSTOMDRAW struct.
pLVCD->clrTextBk=crText;

// Tell Windows to paint the control itself.
*pResult = CDRF_DODEFAULT;
}
}

COLORREF CViewOrders::ChangeCol(int g)
{
// Colors were initially set in the initdialog function
//1 means dont change color
// 0 means change
tempcol=lastcol;
lastcol=nextcol;
nextcol=tempcol;

if (g==1)
{
tempcol=lastcol;
lastcol=nextcol;
nextcol=tempcol;
return nextcol;
}
else
{
return nextcol;
}
}

Great But

Juha Kiviranta

21:36 26 Jun '03

How i can color all items in current row ? e.g. your first line: John -> Paul -> Ringo when found e.g. 'John' i want at 'Paul' and 'Ringo' coloring too same color. Thanks !
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Re: Great But

C_BRUMLEY

17:12 15 Mar '06

I have to admit that I'm rather astonished that people are finding this article useful 3 years after the original posting. But, here I have almost 5 years later checking the article again because I need the code for something. I'm glad that someone found this article helpful, especially since it's not much more than an addition to Michael Dunn's original post.

I apologize for not answering these questions as they were posted, but the email address I used to originally post this article has long since changed.

Anyway...

To color the entire row, put the string compare and color setup in the case where pLVCD->nmcd.dwDrawStage is CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT, which is the indication that the item (as opposed to just the sub item) is about to be painted.

So, Juha, for your example:

// First thing - check the draw stage. If it's the control's prepaint

// stage, then tell Windows we want messages for every item.

if ( CDDS_PREPAINT == pLVCD->nmcd.dwDrawStage )

{

    return CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW;

}

else if ( CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT == pLVCD->nmcd.dwDrawStage )

{

// This is the notification message for an item.  We'll request

// notifications before each subitem's prepaint stage.

			

//this code paints the entire row using the specified colors

COLORREF clrNewTextColor, clrNewBkColor;

        

int    nItem = static_cast( pLVCD->nmcd.dwItemSpec );

CString strTemp = m_ctListCtrl.GetItemText(nItem,0);

 

if(strTemp == m_strName)

{

clrNewTextColor = RGB(255,0,0);		//Set the text to red

clrNewBkColor = RGB(255,255,0);		//Set the bkgrnd color to yellow

}

else

{

clrNewTextColor = RGB(0,0,0);		//Leave the text black

clrNewBkColor = RGB(255,255,255);	//leave the bkgrnd color white

}

pLVCD->clrText = clrNewTextColor;

pLVCD->clrTextBk = clrNewBkColor;

		        

// Tell Windows to paint the control itself.

*pResult = CDRF_DODEFAULT;  //since we don't return CDD_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW, we don't have code for that

}

This will paint the entire rows bkgrnd yellow with red text only if the first item matches the text from the search text. You could modify the "GetItemText" line to check each subitem as well, and paint if any of the items match, but that's left as an exercise for the reader. Smile | :)

Coleman

filtering

bcengiz

3:49 9 Oct '02

it is excellent...! just i want to filter the listbox with respect to the text entering from edit box. i.e. if user hits "A" it will show only the items starting with "A" and then if user hits "t" it will show only the items starting with "At",etc... is there any similar way of to do it. or is it better to use a File instead?
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	5.00/5 (1 vote)

Very usefull

Anonymous

5:15 30 Jul '02

Was looking for something like this a few days ago actually, very usefull. Thanks.
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Re: Download

Brian V Shifrin

12:08 20 Aug '01

Download is ok, by WHY include 5.6 Meg .pch, and objects files? T
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Re: Download

Coleman Brumley

17:38 20 Aug '01

Just following the submission guidelines. They say to include the entire project directory (including .exe, .pch, etc.) so the person who downloads it won't have to recompile to run it.
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