How to Select a Listview Item Programmatically in Windows 95

• Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:

      - Microsoft Windows NT version 3.51
      - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0
      - Microsoft Win32s version 1.3
  

SUMMARY

Selecting a listview item in Windows 95 is not as easy as selecting a list box item was in Windows version 3.1. To select a list box item in Windows version 3.1, an application sends an LB_SETCURSEL or LB_SETSEL to a single- or multiple-selection list box respectively. To select a listview item in Windows 95, an application sends an LVM_SETITEMSTATE message or calls the ListView_SetItemState() macro.

MORE INFORMATION

An application can force a selection of a listview item. You might want the application to do this when a user clicks a column other than the first column of a listview of multiple subitems or columns.

Currently, a listview item is selected only when the user clicks the first column of that item. However, you many want the application to select the item regardless of which column in the listview is clicked.

Windows 95 does not provide a separate message or function to set the current selection in a listview. Instead, it defines item states or LVIS_* values that determine the listview item's appearance and functionality. LVIS_FOCUSED and LVIS_SELECTED in particular are the states that determine a listview item's selection state.

To select a listview item programmatically, an application sets the listview item's state as follows:

   ListView_SetItemState (hWndListView,         // handle to listview
                          iWhichItem,         // index to listview item
                          LVIS_FOCUSED | LVIS_SELECTED, // item state
                          0x000F);                      // mask

The same principle applies to selecting a treeview item programmatically. The only difference is that an application sends a TVM_SETITEM message or calls the TreeView_SetItem() macro.

Because listviews allow multiple selection by default, you can program an application to select multiple items by simulating a CTRL keydown (or SHIFT keydown event) prior to setting the item state. For example, the following code simulates the pressing of the CTRL key:

   BYTE  pbKeyState [256];

   GetKeyboardState ((LPBYTE)&pbKeyState);
   pbKeyState[VK_CONTROL] |= 0x80;
   SetKeyboardState ((LPBYTE)&pbKeyState);

   BYTE  pbKeyState [256];

   GetKeyboardState ((LPBYTE)&pbKeyState);
   pbKeyState[VK_CONTROL] = 0;
   SetKeyboardState ((LPBYTE)&pbKeyState);

For listviews, call the ListView_GetNextItem() function with the LVNI_SELECTED flag specified:

   iCurSel = ListView_GetNextItem (ghwndLV, -1, LVNI_SELECTED);

   iCurSel = TreeView_GetNextItem (ghwndTV, NULL, TVGN_CARET);
      or
   iCurSel = TreeView_GetSelection (ghwndTV);