[c#] C# ListView Column Width Auto

How can I set the column width of a c# winforms listview control to auto. Something like width = -1 / -2 ?

I made a program that cleared and refilled my listview multiple times. For some reason whenever I added columns with width = -2 I encountered a problem with the first column being way too long. What I did to fix this was create this method.

private void ResizeListViewColumns(ListView lv)
{
    foreach(ColumnHeader column in lv.Columns)
    {
        column.Width = -2;
    }
}

The great thing about this method is that you can pretty much put this anywhere to resize all your columns. Just pass in your ListView.

This solution will first resize the columns based on column data, if the resized width is smaller than header size, it will resize columns to at least fit the header. This is a pretty ugly solution, but it works.

lstContacts.AutoResizeColumns(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);
colFirstName.Width = (colFirstName.Width < 60 ? 60 : colFirstName.Width);
colLastName.Width = (colLastName.Width < 61 ? 61 : colLastName.Width);
colPhoneNumber.Width = (colPhoneNumber.Width < 81 ? 81 : colPhoneNumber.Width);
colEmail.Width = (colEmail.Width < 40 ? 40 : colEmail.Width);

lstContacts is the ListView. colFirstName is a column, where 60 is the width required to fit the title. Etc.

I believe the author was looking for an equivalent method via the IDE that would generate the code behind and make sure all parameters were in place, etc. Found this from MS:

Creating Event Handlers on the Windows Forms Designer

Coming from a VB background myself, this is what I was looking for, here is the brief version for the click adverse:

1. Click the form or control that you want to create an event handler for.
2. In the Properties window, click the Events button
3. In the list of available events, click the event that you want to create an event handler for.
4. In the box to the right of the event name, type the name of the handler and press ENTER

Use this:

yourListView.AutoResizeColumns(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);
yourListView.AutoResizeColumns(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.HeaderSize);

from here

It is also worth noting that ListView may not display as expected without first changing the property:

myListView.View = View.Details; // or View.List

For me Visual Studio seems to default it to View.LargeIcon for some reason so nothing appears until it is changed.

Complete code to show a single column in a ListView and allow space for a vertical scroll bar.

lisSerials.Items.Clear();
lisSerials.View = View.Details;
lisSerials.FullRowSelect = true;

// add column if not already present
if(lisSerials.Columns.Count==0)
{
    int vw = SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth;
    lisSerials.Columns.Add("Serial Numbers", lisSerials.Width-vw-5);
}

foreach (string s in stringArray)
{
    ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(new string[] { s });
    lisSerials.Items.Add(lvi);
}

You can use something like this, passing the ListView you want in param

    private void AutoSizeColumnList(ListView listView)
    {
        //Prevents flickering
        listView.BeginUpdate();

        Dictionary<int, int> columnSize = new Dictionary<int,int>();

        //Auto size using header
        listView.AutoResizeColumns(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.HeaderSize);

        //Grab column size based on header
        foreach(ColumnHeader colHeader in listView.Columns )
            columnSize.Add(colHeader.Index, colHeader.Width);

        //Auto size using data
        listView.AutoResizeColumns(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);

        //Grab comumn size based on data and set max width
        foreach (ColumnHeader colHeader in listView.Columns)
        {
            int nColWidth;
            if (columnSize.TryGetValue(colHeader.Index, out nColWidth))
                colHeader.Width = Math.Max(nColWidth, colHeader.Width);
            else
                //Default to 50
                colHeader.Width = Math.Max(50, colHeader.Width);
        }

        listView.EndUpdate();
    }

Expanding a bit on Fredrik's answer, if you want to set the column's auto-resize width on the fly for example: setting the first column's auto-size width to 70:

myListView.Columns[0].AutoResize(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.None);
myListView.Columns[0].Width = 70;
myListView.Columns[0].AutoResize(ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);

There is another useful method called AutoResizeColumn which allows you to auto size a specific column with the required parameter.

You can call it like this:

listview1.AutoResizeColumn(1, ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);
listview1.AutoResizeColumn(2, ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.ColumnContent);
listview1.AutoResizeColumn(3, ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.HeaderSize);
listview1.AutoResizeColumn(4, ColumnHeaderAutoResizeStyle.HeaderSize);

If you have ListView in any Parent panel (ListView dock fill), you can use simply method...

private void ListViewHeaderWidth() {
        int HeaderWidth = (listViewInfo.Parent.Width - 2) / listViewInfo.Columns.Count;
        foreach (ColumnHeader header in listViewInfo.Columns)
        {
            header.Width = HeaderWidth;
        }
    }