ListView

Multi-column data display with headers, grid lines, and row selection.

Overview

ListView extends Selector and renders tabular data with column headers, grid lines, and row-based selection. Columns are defined via ListViewColumn objects specifying Header, Width, and DisplayMemberBinding. The header row is separated from data rows by a horizontal line using box-drawing characters. Column separators use │, header lines use ─, and crossings use ┼. The selected row is highlighted with configurable colors.

Basic Example

<ListView SelectedIndex="0">
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="Name" Width="20" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Size" Width="10" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Modified" Width="18" />
  </ListView.Columns>
  <ListViewItem Content="report.pdf    2.4 MB   2026-04-10" />
  <ListViewItem Content="notes.txt     128 B    2026-04-09" />
  <ListViewItem Content="image.png     1.1 MB   2026-04-08" />
</ListView>

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
SelectedBackground	Color	Blue	Background color of the selected row.
SelectedForeground	Color	White	Foreground color of the selected row.
HeaderBackground	Color	DarkGray	Background color of the column header row.
HeaderForeground	Color	White	Foreground color of the column header row.
ShowGridLines	bool	true	Whether to display column separators and header line using box-drawing characters.
Columns	IList<ListViewColumn>	empty	Collection of column definitions.
SelectedIndex	int	-1	Zero-based index of the currently selected row. Inherited from Selector.
SelectedItem	object	null	The currently selected data item. Inherited from Selector.
ItemsSource	IEnumerable	null	Data source for generating rows. Inherited from ItemsControl.

ListViewColumn Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
Header	string	""	Text displayed in the column header.
Width	int	10	Character width of the column.
DisplayMemberBinding	Binding	null	Binding path to the property on each data item to display in this column.

Creating Items

Inline ListViewItem Elements

<ListView>
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="Process" Width="20" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="PID" Width="8" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="CPU" Width="8" />
  </ListView.Columns>
  <ListViewItem Content="dotnet           1234    12%" />
  <ListViewItem Content="node             5678     8%" />
  <ListViewItem Content="chrome           9012    24%" />
</ListView>

ItemsSource Binding with Columns

<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Processes}" SelectedIndex="0">
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="Name" Width="20"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Name}" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="PID" Width="8"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding ProcessId}" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Memory" Width="12"
                    DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding MemoryUsage}" />
  </ListView.Columns>
</ListView>

Examples

Without Grid Lines

<ListView ShowGridLines="False" SelectedIndex="0">
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="File" Width="25" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Status" Width="12" />
  </ListView.Columns>
  <ListViewItem Content="Program.cs               Modified" />
  <ListViewItem Content="App.xaml                  Unchanged" />
  <ListViewItem Content="README.md                 New" />
</ListView>

Custom Header Colors

<ListView SelectedIndex="1"
          HeaderBackground="DarkBlue"
          HeaderForeground="Yellow"
          SelectedBackground="DarkGreen"
          SelectedForeground="White">
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="Server" Width="18" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Status" Width="10" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Uptime" Width="12" />
  </ListView.Columns>
  <ListViewItem Content="web-01             Online    14d 3h" />
  <ListViewItem Content="web-02             Online    14d 3h" />
  <ListViewItem Content="db-01              Offline   0d 0h" />
</ListView>

Wide Table Layout

<ListView SelectedIndex="0">
  <ListView.Columns>
    <ListViewColumn Header="ID" Width="6" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Title" Width="30" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Author" Width="15" />
    <ListViewColumn Header="Date" Width="12" />
  </ListView.Columns>
  <ListViewItem Content="#1     Fix null reference        Alice    2026-04-10" />
  <ListViewItem Content="#2     Add TreeView control      Bob      2026-04-11" />
  <ListViewItem Content="#3     Update documentation      Charlie  2026-04-12" />
</ListView>

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Up Arrow	Move selection to the previous row.
Down Arrow	Move selection to the next row.
Home	Move selection to the first row.
End	Move selection to the last row.
Page Up	Move selection up by one page of visible rows.
Page Down	Move selection down by one page of visible rows.

Key Concepts

ListView extends Selector, inheriting SelectedIndex, SelectedItem, and SelectionChanged event.
Columns are defined via ListViewColumn objects with Header, Width, and optional DisplayMemberBinding.
When ShowGridLines is True, columns are separated by │ characters, header lines use ─, and crossings use ┼.
The header row renders with HeaderBackground and HeaderForeground colors, visually distinct from data rows.
Row data can be provided inline with <ListViewItem> elements or generated from ItemsSource with DisplayMemberBinding on each column.
Use DisplayMemberBinding on columns to automatically extract property values from bound data objects.