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Adding Checkboxes to a list control

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9 Jan 2000 320.6K   71   47
Using the updated list control in IE3 and above to add check boxes to your list controls

A list view gives the GUI designer many options. One of the best is the ability to display tabular data in columns, sort columns, add images and more. This is well implemented by CListView in MFC.

A checked list box enables the GUI designer to get the users picked options via a checkbox on every list item. This is well implemented by CCheckListBox in MFC.

How to combine them both into one control?

Basically, there are two options: either you use owner drawn list view controls and draw your own check boxes as small images OR you can use the new control introduced in Microsoft's IE 3.0. To use the new features of a list view control you must install IE 3.0 (or above) to get the newest version of COMCTL32.DLL (the common controls library).

This control introduces some new flags in the ListView style and adds accepts some macros defined in the windows header files.

Bear in mind, the new flags and macros DO NOT APPEAR in VC++ 4.2 help files and started to exists in help files only from MSDN Jan 97 version and V++ 5.0

Well, here goes:

First, you have to set the new style in the list view control. This can be done by:

ListView_SetExtendedListViewStyle 
   (m_lvTestList.m_hWnd, LVS_EX_CHECKBOXES | LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECT);

This sets the list view to support check boxes and also a full row select (not only the 1st column).

LVS_EX_CHECKBOXESThe control supplies check boxes for each item. You can retrieve the state of the check box by using the ListView_GetCheckState macro.
LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECTWhen an item is selected, all of its subitems are also displayed as elected. Clicking on any subitem will select the entire row. This extended style is only effective in conjunction with the LVS_REPORT style.
LVS_EX_GRIDLINESDashed gridlines are displayed around all items and subitems. This extended style is only effective in conjunction with the LVS_REPORT style.
LVS_EX_HEADERDRAGDROPEnables drag-and-drop re-ordering of the columns in the ListView. This extended style is only effective in conjunction with the LVS_REPORT style.
LVS_EX_SUBITEMIMAGESAllows images to be displayed for subitems. This extended style is only effective in conjunction with the LVS_REPORT style.
LVS_EX_TRACKSELECTEnables hot tracking of items in a ListView control. Hot Tracking, also known as Hover Selection, means that an item is automatically selected when the mouse pointer is over it for more than 1 second. This style applies to all styles of the ListView control.

How to get notification when an item is checked / unchecked:

void DemoDlg::OnItemchangedLinksList(NMHDR* pNMHDR, LRESULT* pResult) 
{
    NM_LISTVIEW* pNMListView = (NM_LISTVIEW*)pNMHDR;
    *pResult = 0;

    if (pNMListView->uOldState == 0 && pNMListView->uNewState == 0)
        return;    // No change


    // Old check box state
    BOOL bPrevState = (BOOL)(((pNMListView->uOldState & 
                LVIS_STATEIMAGEMASK)>>12)-1);  
    if (bPrevState < 0)    // On startup there's no previous state 
        bPrevState = 0; // so assign as false (unchecked)

    // New check box state
    BOOL bChecked = <BR>            (BOOL)(((pNMListView->uNewState & LVIS_STATEIMAGEMASK)>>12)-1);   
    if (bChecked < 0) // On non-checkbox notifications assume false
        bChecked = 0; 

    if (bPrevState == bChecked) // No change in check box
        return;
    
    // Now bChecked holds the new check box state

    // ....
}

for this to work, you must map the following message:

ON_NOTIFY(LVN_ITEMCHANGED, IDC_MYLIST, OnItemchangedLinksList)

Setting the check box state of an item:

Try the following piece of code

void SetLVCheck (WPARAM ItemIndex, BOOL bCheck)
{
    ListView_SetItemState (m_lvTestList.m_hWnd, ItemIndex, 
        UINT((int(bCheck) + 1) << 12), LVIS_STATEIMAGEMASK);
}

Getting the check box state of an item:

Use the macro ListView_GetCheckState(hwndLV, i) defined in commctl.h (hwndLV is the window handle of the list view member - i.e, m_lvTestList.m_hWnd and i is the list view index)

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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionHi Pin
Binni shah9-Mar-12 18:15
Binni shah9-Mar-12 18:15 
Question&gt;&gt;12)-1 ? Pin
_pw27-Nov-05 23:03
_pw27-Nov-05 23:03 
AnswerRe: &gt;&gt;12)-1 ? Pin
dontknowitall6-May-07 14:31
dontknowitall6-May-07 14:31 
QuestionHow to select only one check box ? Pin
dhawan_boss12-Sep-05 22:59
dhawan_boss12-Sep-05 22:59 
QuestionHow to select only one check box ? Pin
Anonymous12-Sep-05 22:55
Anonymous12-Sep-05 22:55 
GeneralThanks Pin
tsurutsuru17-Mar-05 9:57
tsurutsuru17-Mar-05 9:57 
GeneralGreat article Pin
Trapper300115-Dec-03 15:24
Trapper300115-Dec-03 15:24 
QuestionHow to use OnItemchangedLinksList Pin
Michael Klim19-Oct-03 7:07
Michael Klim19-Oct-03 7:07 
Questionhow to add a check box and item without a check box in a single column Pin
abhi_in25-Sep-03 2:52
abhi_in25-Sep-03 2:52 
QuestionHow to disable check box within ctrlList,thanks Pin
nodream16-Jun-03 0:02
nodream16-Jun-03 0:02 
GeneralI want partly checkbox in one column Pin
JinSung Choi29-Mar-03 1:43
JinSung Choi29-Mar-03 1:43 
GeneralRe: I want partly checkbox in one column Pin
lvidaguren18-Feb-04 18:58
lvidaguren18-Feb-04 18:58 
GeneralRe: I want partly checkbox in one column Pin
Member 147920264-Apr-20 5:41
Member 147920264-Apr-20 5:41 
QuestionHow can set all column with checkbox? Pin
sages10-Mar-03 22:23
sages10-Mar-03 22:23 
AnswerRe: How can set all column with checkbox? Pin
Saravanan_article23-Dec-05 21:13
Saravanan_article23-Dec-05 21:13 
GeneralSetLVCheck doesn't seem to work Pin
prospector89-Mar-03 15:22
prospector89-Mar-03 15:22 
GeneralRe: SetLVCheck doesn't seem to work Pin
j2xuk28-Mar-04 20:33
j2xuk28-Mar-04 20:33 
GeneralRe: SetLVCheck doesn't seem to work Pin
tidi28-Jul-04 21:58
tidi28-Jul-04 21:58 
Questionhow to get the the header 's text of every column Pin
dvid6-Mar-03 16:10
dvid6-Mar-03 16:10 
GeneralAdding Check Box to List COntrol Pin
4-May-02 14:07
suss4-May-02 14:07 
Generalproblem with common controls 6.0 Pin
DaveBevan3-Apr-02 14:22
DaveBevan3-Apr-02 14:22 
i've been using checkboxes on my list control as described above and it works great. my problem is that we've switched to MFC70 (Visual Studio .NET) and added the manifest resource to use common controls 6.0 when available. my problem is that on XP (which ships with 6.0) when an item in my control is selected, the checkbox is not drawn. is anyone else having this problem? it's quite irritating and i may just have to go back to using comm ctrls 5.0, but i would like to support the new XP visual styles if possible.


Dave
QuestionCan u please tell me how to include Comctl32.dll to existing project environment Pin
Ravi ;-)3-Dec-01 20:28
Ravi ;-)3-Dec-01 20:28 
Questioncan someone explain ListView_SetItemState(...) Pin
18-Jul-01 14:33
suss18-Jul-01 14:33 
Generalsimple sample Pin
erez17-May-01 2:00
erez17-May-01 2:00 
GeneralThis is great Pin
3-Apr-01 13:41
suss3-Apr-01 13:41 

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