Adding button into a Listview in WinForms

Question

Is there a way to add a button control to a cell in inside a ListView in a WinForms app?

Answer 1

Here is a code of a class ListViewExtender that you can reuse. It's not a derived class of ListView, basically you just declare that a specific column is displayed as buttons instead of text. The button's text is the subItem's text.

It allows big sized list views without problems, does not use p/invoke, and also works with horizontal scrollbars (some code proposed as answers here don't or are quite slow with a great number of items). Note it requires the extended ListView to have FullRowSelect set to true and view type set to Details.

This is a sample code that uses it:

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1 {     public partial class Form1 : Form     {         public Form1()         {             InitializeComponent(); // you need to add a listView named listView1 with the designer             listView1.FullRowSelect = true;             ListViewExtender extender = new ListViewExtender(listView1);             // extend 2nd column             ListViewButtonColumn buttonAction = new ListViewButtonColumn(1);             buttonAction.Click += OnButtonActionClick;             buttonAction.FixedWidth = true;              extender.AddColumn(buttonAction);              for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)             {                 ListViewItem item = listView1.Items.Add("item" + i);                 item.SubItems.Add("button " + i);             }         }          private void OnButtonActionClick(object sender, ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs e)         {             MessageBox.Show(this, @"you clicked " + e.SubItem.Text);         }     } } 

Here is the ListViewExtender code and associated classes:

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Drawing; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles;  namespace WindowsFormsApplication1 {     public class ListViewExtender : IDisposable     {         private readonly Dictionary<int, ListViewColumn> _columns = new Dictionary<int, ListViewColumn>();          public ListViewExtender(ListView listView)         {             if (listView == null)                 throw new ArgumentNullException("listView");              if (listView.View != View.Details)                 throw new ArgumentException(null, "listView");              ListView = listView;             ListView.OwnerDraw = true;             ListView.DrawItem += OnDrawItem;             ListView.DrawSubItem += OnDrawSubItem;             ListView.DrawColumnHeader += OnDrawColumnHeader;             ListView.MouseMove += OnMouseMove;             ListView.MouseClick += OnMouseClick;              Font = new Font(ListView.Font.FontFamily, ListView.Font.Size - 2);         }          public virtual Font Font { get; private set; }         public ListView ListView { get; private set; }          protected virtual void OnMouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)         {             ListViewItem item;             ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem sub;             ListViewColumn column = GetColumnAt(e.X, e.Y, out item, out sub);             if (column != null)             {                 column.MouseClick(e, item, sub);             }         }          public ListViewColumn GetColumnAt(int x, int y, out ListViewItem item, out ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)         {             subItem = null;             item = ListView.GetItemAt(x, y);             if (item == null)                 return null;              subItem = item.GetSubItemAt(x, y);             if (subItem == null)                 return null;              for (int i = 0; i < item.SubItems.Count; i++)             {                 if (item.SubItems[i] == subItem)                     return GetColumn(i);             }             return null;         }          protected virtual void OnMouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)         {             ListViewItem item;             ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem sub;             ListViewColumn column = GetColumnAt(e.X, e.Y, out item, out sub);             if (column != null)             {                 column.Invalidate(item, sub);                 return;             }             if (item != null)             {                 ListView.Invalidate(item.Bounds);             }         }          protected virtual void OnDrawColumnHeader(object sender, DrawListViewColumnHeaderEventArgs e)         {             e.DrawDefault = true;         }          protected virtual void OnDrawSubItem(object sender, DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e)         {             ListViewColumn column = GetColumn(e.ColumnIndex);             if (column == null)             {                 e.DrawDefault = true;                 return;             }              column.Draw(e);         }          protected virtual void OnDrawItem(object sender, DrawListViewItemEventArgs e)         {             // do nothing         }          public void AddColumn(ListViewColumn column)         {             if (column == null)                 throw new ArgumentNullException("column");              column.Extender = this;             _columns[column.ColumnIndex] = column;         }          public ListViewColumn GetColumn(int index)         {             ListViewColumn column;             return _columns.TryGetValue(index, out column) ? column : null;         }          public IEnumerable<ListViewColumn> Columns         {             get             {                 return _columns.Values;             }         }          public virtual void Dispose()         {             if (Font != null)             {                 Font.Dispose();                 Font = null;             }         }     }      public abstract class ListViewColumn     {         public event EventHandler<ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs> Click;          protected ListViewColumn(int columnIndex)         {             if (columnIndex < 0)                 throw new ArgumentException(null, "columnIndex");              ColumnIndex = columnIndex;         }          public virtual ListViewExtender Extender { get; protected internal set; }         public int ColumnIndex { get; private set; }          public virtual Font Font         {             get             {                 return Extender == null ? null : Extender.Font;             }         }          public ListView ListView         {             get             {                 return Extender == null ? null : Extender.ListView;             }         }          public abstract void Draw(DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e);          public virtual void MouseClick(MouseEventArgs e, ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)         {             if (Click != null)             {                 Click(this, new ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs(e, item, subItem));             }         }          public virtual void Invalidate(ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)         {             if (Extender != null)             {                 Extender.ListView.Invalidate(subItem.Bounds);             }         }     }      public class ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs : MouseEventArgs     {         public ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs(MouseEventArgs e, ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)             : base(e.Button, e.Clicks, e.X, e.Y, e.Delta)         {             Item = item;             SubItem = subItem;         }          public ListViewItem Item { get; private set; }         public ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem SubItem { get; private set; }     }      public class ListViewButtonColumn : ListViewColumn     {         private Rectangle _hot = Rectangle.Empty;          public ListViewButtonColumn(int columnIndex)             : base(columnIndex)         {         }          public bool FixedWidth { get; set; }         public bool DrawIfEmpty { get; set; }          public override ListViewExtender Extender         {             get             {                 return base.Extender;             }             protected internal set             {                 base.Extender = value;                 if (FixedWidth)                 {                     base.Extender.ListView.ColumnWidthChanging += OnColumnWidthChanging;                 }             }         }          protected virtual void OnColumnWidthChanging(object sender, ColumnWidthChangingEventArgs e)         {             if (e.ColumnIndex == ColumnIndex)             {                 e.Cancel = true;                 e.NewWidth = ListView.Columns[e.ColumnIndex].Width;             }         }          public override void Draw(DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e)         {             if (_hot != Rectangle.Empty)             {                 if (_hot != e.Bounds)                 {                     ListView.Invalidate(_hot);                     _hot = Rectangle.Empty;                 }             }              if ((!DrawIfEmpty) && (string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.SubItem.Text)))                 return;              Point mouse = e.Item.ListView.PointToClient(Control.MousePosition);             if ((ListView.GetItemAt(mouse.X, mouse.Y) == e.Item) && (e.Item.GetSubItemAt(mouse.X, mouse.Y) == e.SubItem))             {                 ButtonRenderer.DrawButton(e.Graphics, e.Bounds, e.SubItem.Text, Font, true, PushButtonState.Hot);                 _hot = e.Bounds;             }             else             {                 ButtonRenderer.DrawButton(e.Graphics, e.Bounds, e.SubItem.Text, Font, false, PushButtonState.Default);             }         }     } } 

Answer 2

The ListView itself (or ListViewItem) does not function as a container of any kind so no way to add controls directly, however it is doable. I have used this extended ListView with a lot of success: Embedding Controls in a ListView.