Multi-column data in ListBox

Question

I want to have multi-column in my ListBox. Below is the example of picture I got in my application.

I actually have about 7 columns, but printed out only two columns to make it easier to understand.

So, the first column would say date and the second column would say name. As you can see, the data did not go into their own columns.

This is my code:

this.listBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ListBox();
this.SuspendLayout();
// 
// listBox1
// 
this.listBox1.FormattingEnabled = true;
this.listBox1.HorizontalScrollbar = true;

foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList)
{
    string date = xn.OfType<XmlNode>().FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "Date").FirstChild.Value;
    string id = xn.OfType<XmlNode>().FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "ID").FirstChild.Value;
    if (date == cari)
    {
        this.listBox1.Items.AddRange(new object[] {                    
        //dateBox.Text,
        dateBox.Text + "\r\n" + date});

        this.listBox1.Items.AddRange(new object[] {                    
        "sarabrown"});
    }
}
this.listBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 28);
this.listBox1.MultiColumn = true;
this.listBox1.Name = "listBox1";
this.listBox1.ScrollAlwaysVisible = true;
this.listBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(300, 95);
this.listBox1.TabIndex = 0;
this.listBox1.ColumnWidth = 100;
// 
// Form3
// 
this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(400, 273);
this.Controls.Add(this.listBox1);
this.Name = "Form3";
this.ResumeLayout(false);

I found this code there, but it creates a list box that looks just like the one pictured above. Is there anyone knows about this?

Solution

The MultiColumn property of ListBox only helps to avoid vertical scrolling hence just stacks the overflowing items into the next column. The requirement you have is not available by default in .NET. Hence you may have to build your own custom control to support that.

Btw, GridView is your friend.. What you need is easily achievable using GridView. For e.g., to make it simplistic (you may have to tweak this entirely to suit your problem)

protected void MyGridView_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    DataSet myDataSet = new DataSet();
    myDataSet.ReadXml(new StringReader(myXmlDoc.OuterXml));
    GridView gv = (GridView)sender;
    gv.DataSource = myDataSet;
    gv.DataBind();
}

UPDATE:

You may want to check out ListView instead of GridView or ListBox. It is comparatively lightweight than a GridView.

With ListView you can also put in other controls in the different columns like checkboxes.

Check this example out to give you an idea.
Or this one which is simpler: Using ListView control in C#.

Comments

[lc.]

Do you have anything against using a DataGridView?

[SMK]

have you look out this link? codeproject.com/Articles/2377/Multi-Column-List-Box-in-C

[nawfal]

possible duplicate of C# MultiColumn Listbox

[ToolmakerSteve]

Use ListView instead.

[Marcelo Scofano Diniz]

@ToolmakerSteve and all, although OP did not stated this need, ListView would be a fine choice if it has DataBinding through DataSource collection... any updates that I'm not aware?

[ToolmakerSteve]

@MarceloScofanoDiniz - I build mine using a loop in code. My point here was simply that ListView has a way to describe multiple columns.

[sara brown]

i have tried this and it says "cannot convert from [,] to []". then i tried to remove the ',' and it prints out the same.

[Kash]

@sarabrown: that code would not work because it is not supported in .NET. The MultiColumn property is meant for something else as described above (I know, it is misleading).

[mathias.horn]

No. This is not multicolumn. The given example add a range of values, one per row.