CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#listbox
John Tan
John Tan

Reputation: 1385

How to format alignment in ListBox

I add values to a ListBox, 

for(int i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
{
     lbBeamValue.Items.Add("Beam " + i.ToString() + " : " + value1[i] + " Angle " + i.ToString() + " : " + value2[i]);
}

which is displayed something like:

Beam 0: 0.12 Angle 0: 0.65
Beam 1: 10.113213 Angle 1: 0.23

Is there a way to ensure that the Angle aligns in every row? Like:

Beam 0: 0.12      Angle 0: 0.65
Beam 1: 10.113213 Angle 1: 0.23

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1618

Answers (3)

Bob Moore
Bob Moore

Reputation: 6894

A listbox will still allow the use of tabs. You can achieve it like this:

  public Form1 ()
  {
     InitializeComponent ();
     // ....

     int [] MyTabs = {20,70,130};
     SetListTabs (lbMessages, MyTabs);
  }

  private void btnAddTabbed_Click (object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("1\t2\t3\t4");
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("40\t50\t60\t70");
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("100\t200\t300\t400");
  }

  private void SetListTabs (ListBox lb, IEnumerable<int> newTabs)
  {
     lb.UseCustomTabOffsets = true;

     ListBox.IntegerCollection lbTabs = lb.CustomTabOffsets;
     lbTabs.Clear ();

     foreach (int tab in newTabs)
     {
        lbTabs.Add (tab);
     }
  }

  private void btnAddTabbed_Click (object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("1\t2\t3\t4");
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("40\t50\t60\t70");
     lbMessages.Items.Add ("100\t200\t300\t400");
  }

However I'd have to ask why you would want to do this when better options like a ListView with proper header support exist. I suppose for a quick hack, or a minimal-change retrofit to an existing app, then it's kind of defensible, but a ListView would be better.

Upvotes: 1

TaW
TaW

Reputation: 54433

No simple control will allow you the use of tabs; so you either need a control, like ListView that has columns or you need to chose a fixe-sized font (like Consolas) and pad each item to a given length with string.PadLeft and string.PadRight:

lbBeamValue.Font = new Font("Consolas", 8f);

for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
{
    listBox2.Items.Add("Beam " + (i).ToString("#0").PadLeft(2) + " : " + 
          value1[i].ToString().PadRight(11) + " Angle " + i.ToString() + " : " + 
          value2[i]);
        };

Note the String.Format also allows you to build a complex string with padding.

enter image description here

Upvotes: -1

Adriaan Stander
Adriaan Stander

Reputation: 166336

Why not rather make use of a ListView

Represents a Windows list view control, which displays a collection of items that can be displayed using one of four different views.

There you can specify the View and Columns

Upvotes: 2

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