How to change the backcolor of a listview subitem using its own value

Question

How can I programmatically change the back color of a single cell in a listview using its own value?

The values in the ColorFlag Column Came from the database.

Here is my code:

foreach(DataRow dr in _dataTbl.Rows) 
        {
            _markOW = dr["Mark"].ToString();
            _stock = dr["Stock"].ToString();
            _SteelSectio = dr["SteelSection"].ToString();
            _colo = (Int32)dr["Color"];


            ListViewItem _lvi = new ListViewItem(_markOW);
            _lvi.SubItems.AddRange(new string[]{_SteelSectio, _stock,     _colo.ToString()});

            _myListView.Items.Add(_lvi);   }

Here is the code that I have tried to change the backcolor of the cells:

for (int _i = 0; _i < _owLV.Items.Count; _i++)
            {
                _myListView.Items[_i].UseItemStyleForSubItems = false;
                _myListView.Items[_i].SubItems[3].BackColor = Color.FromArgb(_colo);
            }

Thanks in advance

Amaras

Why aren't you using a DataGridView? – Declinometer

I don't know how to use DataGridView yet. – Amaras

Well, this might be a good time to learn. It's actually not that difficult and the visual designer tools for setting up a simple gridview are fairly straightforward. I think your time would be better spent learning that than fighting with ListView to make it do what it's not really designed to do. – Declinometer

DataGridView is a horrible control and unless you're using it as an editable bound data grid, there's really no purpose to it. A much better alternative to ListView would be ObjectListView. – Shuman

Thanks josh. It's like a stupid mistake. – Amaras

Do you want to qualify your statement about DataGridView? I've used it for quite a number of things and found it to be very flexible, both bound to a data source and not. – Declinometer

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, the code you have looks fine. I just threw together a quick Windows Forms application and tossed a ListView on the form with two columns in detail view. The following code works fine.

var item1 = new ListViewItem( "Item 1");
item1.SubItems.Add( "Color" );
item1.SubItems[1].BackColor = Color.FromArgb( -16711936 );
item1.UseItemStyleForSubItems = false;

listView1.Items.Add( item1 );

I would try setting the BackColor before you add the item. It also looks like you're setting all the items to the same color which is probably not what you want.

Shuman

Great solution! UseItemStyleForSubItems is essential. And the indexing can be eliminated by first creating a ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem object, coloring its background, and then adding it to .SubItems.Add() call. – Lyricism

Answer 2

Take a look at these links:

C# ListView Detail, Highlight a single cell

Changing color of list view cell using C# (has a working solution)

The key point is to set this:

listView1.Items[0].UseItemStyleForSubItems = false;

Do this:

foreach (DataRow dr in _dataTbl.Rows)
{
    _markOW = dr["Mark"].ToString();
    _stock = dr["Stock"].ToString();
    _SteelSectio = dr["SteelSection"].ToString();
    _color = (Int32)dr["Color"];

    ListViewItem _lvi = new ListViewItem(_markOW);

    _lvi.SubItems.AddRange(new string[] {_SteelSectio, _stock, _color.ToString() });    
    _lvi.UseItemStyleForSubItems = false;
    _lvi.SubItems[2].BackColor = Color.FromArgb(_color);

    _myListView.Items.Add(_lvi);
}

Nessim

The second link you have posted is the one I use a while ago. But the problem with that, is that the last value set in the variable _colo will be the back color of the column. – Amaras

@Amaras that's because you are setting them all the to same color, _colo. Take a look at my example and my note at the end. You should set the BackColor before you add the item. – Shuman

UseItemStyleForSubItems -- that's the key to getting the background color change on the subitems -- thanks, this really helped! – Faience