ListBox.DrawMode Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly:

System.Windows.Forms.dll

Source:

ListBox.cs

Gets or sets the drawing mode for the control.

C#

public virtual System.Windows.Forms.DrawMode DrawMode { get; set; }

Property Value

DrawMode

One of the DrawMode values representing the mode for drawing the items of the control. The default is DrawMode.Normal.

Exceptions

InvalidEnumArgumentException

The value assigned to the property is not a member of the DrawMode enumeration.

ArgumentException

A multicolumn ListBox cannot have a variable-sized height.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to create owner-drawn ListBox items. The code uses the DrawMode property to specify that the items drawn are fixed sized and the DrawItem event to perform the drawing of each item into the ListBox. The example code uses the properties and methods of the DrawItemEventArgs class passed as a parameter to the event handler to draw the items. This example requires that a ListBox control called listBox1 has been added to a form and that the DrawItem event is handled by the event handler defined in the example code. The example also requires that items have been added to the ListBox with the text of "Apple", "Orange", and "Plum" in that order.

C#

private ListBox ListBox1 = new ListBox();
private void InitializeListBox()
{
    ListBox1.Items.AddRange(new Object[] 
        { "Red Item", "Orange Item", "Purple Item" });
    ListBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(81, 69);
    ListBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(120, 95);
    ListBox1.DrawMode = DrawMode.OwnerDrawFixed;
    ListBox1.DrawItem += new DrawItemEventHandler(ListBox1_DrawItem);
    Controls.Add(ListBox1);
}

private void ListBox1_DrawItem(object sender, 
    System.Windows.Forms.DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
    // Draw the background of the ListBox control for each item.
    e.DrawBackground();
    // Define the default color of the brush as black.
    Brush myBrush = Brushes.Black;

    // Determine the color of the brush to draw each item based 
    // on the index of the item to draw.
    switch (e.Index)
    {
        case 0:
            myBrush = Brushes.Red;
            break;
        case 1:
            myBrush = Brushes.Orange;
            break;
        case 2:
            myBrush = Brushes.Purple;
            break;
    }

    // Draw the current item text based on the current Font 
    // and the custom brush settings.
    e.Graphics.DrawString(ListBox1.Items[e.Index].ToString(), 
        e.Font, myBrush, e.Bounds, StringFormat.GenericDefault);
    // If the ListBox has focus, draw a focus rectangle around the selected item.
    e.DrawFocusRectangle();
}

Applies to

See also

• DrawMode
• DrawItem