[wpf] How to autosize and right-align GridViewColumn data in WPF?

How can I:

• right-align the text in the ID column
• make each of the columns auto size according to the text length of the cell with the longest visible data?

Here is the code:

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="ID" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Id}" Width="40"/>
            <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="100" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

partial answer:

Thanks Kjetil, the GridViewColumn.CellTemplate works well and the Auto Width works of course but when the ObservativeCollection "Collection" is updated with longer-than-column-width data, the column sizes do not update themselves so that is only a solution for the initial display of data:

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="ID" Width="Auto">
                <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                    <DataTemplate>
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Id}" TextAlignment="Right" Width="40"/>
                    </DataTemplate>
                </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
            </GridViewColumn>
            <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="Auto" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}" Width="Auto"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

I have created the following class and used across the application wherever required in place of GridView:

/// <summary>
/// Represents a view mode that displays data items in columns for a System.Windows.Controls.ListView control with auto sized columns based on the column content     
/// </summary>
public class AutoSizedGridView : GridView
{        
    protected override void PrepareItem(ListViewItem item)
    {
        foreach (GridViewColumn column in Columns)
        {
            // Setting NaN for the column width automatically determines the required
            // width enough to hold the content completely.

            // If the width is NaN, first set it to ActualWidth temporarily.
            if (double.IsNaN(column.Width))
              column.Width = column.ActualWidth;

            // Finally, set the column with to NaN. This raises the property change
            // event and re computes the width.
            column.Width = double.NaN;              
        }            
        base.PrepareItem(item);
    }
}

I liked user1333423's solution except that it always re-sized every column; i needed to allow some columns to be fixed width. So in this version columns with a width set to "Auto" will be auto-sized and those set to a fixed amount will not be auto-sized.

public class AutoSizedGridView : GridView
{
    HashSet<int> _autoWidthColumns;

    protected override void PrepareItem(ListViewItem item)
    {
        if (_autoWidthColumns == null)
        {
            _autoWidthColumns = new HashSet<int>();

            foreach (var column in Columns)
            {
                if(double.IsNaN(column.Width))
                    _autoWidthColumns.Add(column.GetHashCode());
            }                
        }

        foreach (GridViewColumn column in Columns)
        {
            if (_autoWidthColumns.Contains(column.GetHashCode()))
            {
                if (double.IsNaN(column.Width))
                    column.Width = column.ActualWidth;

                column.Width = double.NaN;                    
            }          
        }

        base.PrepareItem(item);
    }        
}

Since I had an ItemContainerStyle I had to put the HorizontalContentAlignment in the ItemContainerStyle

    <ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
            <Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
                <Style.Triggers>
                    <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=FieldDef.DispDetail, Mode=OneWay}" Value="False">
                         <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed"/>
                    </DataTrigger>
                </Style.Triggers>
                <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" /> 
    ....

If the width of the contents changes, you'll have to use this bit of code to update each column:

private void ResizeGridViewColumn(GridViewColumn column)
{
    if (double.IsNaN(column.Width))
    {
        column.Width = column.ActualWidth;
    }

    column.Width = double.NaN;
}

You'd have to fire it each time the data for that column updates.

If your listview is also re-sizing then you can use a behavior pattern to re-size the columns to fit the full ListView width. Almost the same as you using grid.column definitions

<ListView HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
          Behaviours:GridViewColumnResize.Enabled="True">
        <ListViewItem></ListViewItem>
        <ListView.View>
            <GridView>
                <GridViewColumn  Header="Column *"
                                   Behaviours:GridViewColumnResize.Width="*" >
                    <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Text="Example1" />
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>

See the following link for some examples and link to source code http://lazycowprojects.tumblr.com/post/7063214400/wpf-c-listview-column-width-auto

I know that this is too late but here is my approach:

<GridViewColumn x:Name="GridHeaderLocalSize"  Width="100">      
<GridViewColumn.Header>
    <GridViewColumnHeader HorizontalContentAlignment="Right">
        <Grid Width="Auto" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="Local size" TextAlignment="Right" Padding="0,0,5,0"/>
        </Grid>
    </GridViewColumnHeader>
</GridViewColumn.Header>
<GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
        <TextBlock Width="{Binding ElementName=GridHeaderLocalSize, Path=Width, FallbackValue=100}"  HorizontalAlignment="Right" TextAlignment="Right" Padding="0,0,5,0" Text="Text" >
        </TextBlock>
    </DataTemplate>
</GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>

The main idea is to bind the width of the cellTemplete element to the width of the ViewGridColumn. Width=100 is default width used until first resize. There isn't any code behind. Everything is in xaml.

This is your code

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="ID" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Id}" Width="40"/>
            <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="100" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

Try this

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Id}" Width="Auto">
               <GridViewColumnHeader Content="ID" Width="Auto" />
            </GridViewColumn>
            <GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="Auto">
              <GridViewColumnHeader Content="First Name" Width="Auto" />
            </GridViewColumn>
            <GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}" Width="Auto">
              <GridViewColumnHeader Content="Last Name" Width="Auto" />
            </GridViewColumn
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

I created a function for updating GridView column headers for a list and call it whenever the window is re-sized or the listview updates it's layout.

public void correctColumnWidths()
{
    double remainingSpace = myList.ActualWidth;

    if (remainingSpace > 0)
    {
         for (int i = 0; i < (myList.View as GridView).Columns.Count; i++)
              if (i != 2)
                   remainingSpace -= (myList.View as GridView).Columns[i].ActualWidth;

          //Leave 15 px free for scrollbar
          remainingSpace -= 15;

          (myList.View as GridView).Columns[2].Width = remainingSpace;
    }
}

I had trouble with the accepted answer (because I missed the HorizontalAlignment=Stretch portion and have adjusted the original answer).

This is another technique. It uses a Grid with a SharedSizeGroup.

Note: the Grid.IsSharedScope=true on the ListView.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication6.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Grid>
    <ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}" Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
        <ListView.View>
            <GridView>
                <GridViewColumn Header="ID" Width="40">
                    <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                             <Grid>
                                  <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                       <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="IdColumn"/>
                                  </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                  <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Right" Text={Binding Path=Id}"/>
                             </Grid>
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                </GridViewColumn>
                <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="Auto" />
                <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}" Width="Auto"/>
            </GridView>
        </ListView.View>
    </ListView>
</Grid>
</Window>