How To Set the Column Width of Columns in a ListView Control

MORE INFORMATION

1. Start Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
2. Add a single ListView control and one command button to the form.
3. Add this declaration to the General Declarations section of the form:

         Private Declare Function
            SendMessage Lib "USER32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
                   ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                   ByVal Msg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, _
                   ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
   
   						

4. Add the following code to the command button's Click event. This demonstrates a sample call to the ListView_SetColumnWidth procedure and the addition of items that demonstrate the change in width:

         Private Sub Command1_Click()
            Dim Item As ListItem
            ListView1.View = lvwList
            Set Item = ListView1.ListItems.Add
            Item.Text = "This is a very long line of text"
            Doevents
            ListView_SetColumnWidth ListView1
   
            ' To Run this in Visual Basic 4.0, comment out the above lines
            ' and uncomment the following lines
            '
            ' Dim Item As ListItem
            ' ListView1.View = lvwList
            ' ListView_SetColumnWidth ListView1
            ' Set Item = ListView1.ListItems.Add
            ' Item.Text = "This is a very long line of text"
         End Sub
   
   						

5. Add the following ListView_SetColumnWidth procedure to the form:

   '=====================================================================
   ' Title: ListView_SetColumnWidth
   '
   ' Purpose: Sends a LVM_SETCOLUMNWIDTH message to the listview control to
   ' set its column width
   ' for List and Report views
   '
   ' Parameters:
   '      lvw  - ListView control object where the column width will be set
   '
   '     [iCol] - Specifies the column for which the width will be set
   '              only valid in Report view. Ignored for List view.
   '
   '     [vTxt] - Optional variant containing either a numeric value
   '              representing the desired column width (in pixels) or a text
   '              string where the column width will be set to match the width
   '              of the passed in text string.
   '
   '              If in List view this parameter is not provided, then the
   '              column width is set to the width of the ListView (lvw)
   '              control.
   '
   '              If in Report view this parameter is not provided, the column
   '              width is not set.
   '=====================================================================
   
      Sub ListView_SetColumnWidth(ByVal lvw As ListView, _
                                  Optional ByVal iCol As Variant, _
                                  Optional ByVal vTxt As Variant)
   
      Const LVSCW_AUTOSIZE = -1
      Const LVSCW_AUTOSIZE_USEHEADER = -2
   
      Const LVM_FIRST = &H1000
      Const LVM_GETCOLUMNWIDTH = LVM_FIRST + 29
      Const LVM_SETCOLUMNWIDTH = LVM_FIRST + 30
   
      Dim sm As Integer
      Dim lWidth As Long
   
      '
      ' Abort if the control's hWnd isn't set or if is not in
      ' the List or Report views.
   
      If lvw.hwnd = 0& Or (lvw.View <> lvwList And lvw.View <> lvwReport) Then
      Exit Sub
      End If
   
      '
      ' Remember the ScaleMode of the Form
      ' and set Form.ScaleMode to Pixels to match the ListView's intrinsic
      ' ScaleMode
      '
      sm = lvw.Parent.ScaleMode
      lvw.Parent.ScaleMode = vbPixels
   
      If IsMissing(iCol) Then
      If lvw.View = lvwList Then
            iCol = 0
           ElseIf lvw.View = lvwReport Then
                '
                'iCol must be provided in report view
                '
                lvw.Parent.ScaleMode = sm
                Exit Sub
            End If
      End If
   
      '
      ' Set the desired column width
      ' If a text string is provided set the column width
      ' based on the text
      '
      If IsMissing(vTxt) Then
   
      vTxt = ""
           If lvw.View = lvwList Then
                '
                ' 5 millimeters (via the ScaleX statement) is tacked on to
                ' compensate for the 5 millimeter border that the parent
                ' class applies to the column width.
                '
                lWidth = lvw.Width + ScaleX(5, vbMillimeters, vbPixels)
           ElseIf lvw.View = lvwReport Then
                '
                ' The vTxt parameter must be provided in Report view
                '
                lvw.Parent.ScaleMode = sm
                Exit Sub
           End If
      Else
      '
           ' 5 millimeters (via the ScaleX statement) is tacked on
           ' to compensate for the 5 millimeter border that the parent class
           ' applies to the column width
           '
           If IsNumeric(vTxt) Then
            '
            ' Numeric width is provided
            '
                lWidth = vTxt + ScaleX(5, vbMillimeters, vbPixels)
           Else
                lWidth = TextWidth(vTxt) + ScaleX(5, vbMillimeters, vbPixels)
           End If
      End If
   
      SendMessage ListView1.hwnd, LVM_SETCOLUMNWIDTH, CLng(iCol), lWidth
      lvw.Parent.ScaleMode = sm
   
      End Sub
   						

6. Press the F5 key or select Start from the Run menu to run the application. Click the command button to execute the ListView_SetColumnWidth subroutine.