autoresize columns in a checklistbox

Question

autoresize columns in a checklistbox

Aquitus 146

the items inserted into my checklistbox can vary in size but the column width is fixed and im not sure how to collect the largest item's width from the collection
how should i go about coding an autoresize function?

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Answer 1

Hi
One way is to measure each of the strings in the ListBox, keeping the largest as you iterate through and after iteration finished, set the ListBox width accordingly.

You can measure a string, with the appropriate font: below is an example. You can fine tune the width returned by adding a character or two to the string being measured to suit your needs.

' Test code
 Dim r As New Random
 Dim s As String = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
 s &= s.ToUpper & "1234567890"
 With ListBox1
 For i As Integer = 0 To 19
 Dim c As Integer = r.Next(5, 15)
 .Items.Add(s.Substring(r.Next(0, s.Length - c), c))
 Next
 End With
 ListBox1.Width = GetWidth()

 Function GetWidth() As Integer
 Dim w As Integer = 0
 For Each s As String In ListBox1.Items
'  the "XXX" is just extra spacing
 Dim ww As Integer = TextRenderer.MeasureText(s & "XXX", ListBox1.Font).Width
 If ww > w Then w = ww
 Next
 Return w
 End Function

Aquitus 146 Reputation points

2022-02-18T07:56:35.74+00:00

works great! the only bug is "ListBox1.Width = GetWidth()" should be "ListBox1.ColumnWidth = GetWidth()"
also first time ive seen if then so simplified, definitely yoinking that

Answer 2

Xingyu Zhao-MSFT 5,381

Hi @Aquitus ,
As suggested by LesHay-2099, you can refer to the following code to resize the checklistbox.

    Private Sub ResizeSize(ByVal lst As ListBox)  
        Dim maxWidth As Integer = 0  
        Dim h As Integer = lst.ItemHeight * lst.Items.Count  
        lst.Height = h + lst.Height - lst.ClientSize.Height  
  
        For Each s As String In lst.Items  
            Dim itemWidth As Integer = TextRenderer.MeasureText(s & "XXX", lst.Font).Width  
            If itemWidth > maxWidth Then maxWidth = itemWidth  
        Next  
        lst.Width = maxWidth  
    End Sub

Hope it could be helpful.
Best Regards,
Xingyu Zhao
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Aquitus 146 Reputation points

2022-02-18T08:01:53.603+00:00

LesHay posted first so im marking him as answer but your code has an improvement for in the "ByVal lst As ListBox" since i have multiple checklistboxes and that will simplify things, thank you
LesHay 7,141 Reputation points

2022-02-18T08:10:51.62+00:00

Hi
Thanks.

The code I posted was just to show the concept. It would work across many control types where a width is available. The ListBox1.Width does work as intended, just the same as if you were dragging the edge of the box in the Designer .

I do have a more fully expanded version showing both a ListBox and a CheckedListBox but when posting I just grabbed a simplified version.

Answer 3

Karen Payne MVP 35,586 Volunteer Moderator

Consider using a ListView which has AutoResizeColumn to resize a text based column and add a column for check boxes. To get checked items use CheckedItems.

You can set selection mode to 1 and FullRowSelect to true.

When done the above and a few other mods in the property windows of the ListView you will be good to go.

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autoresize columns in a checklistbox

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