Drag And Drop in ListView
By Shripad Kulkarni

Source Code : Code

Drag and Drop operations in windows can be achieved using 3 simple events ..DragEnter , DragLeave , DragDrop. The example provided in this articles show you 2 listview items and dragging and dropping the items from one list to the other. Important : If you plan to cut and paste the source code from this article , please make sure to set the AllowDrop option to True in the properties for the listView control

Drag Data

Begin the Drag operation using listView2.DoDragDrop(str, DragDropEffects.Copy | DragDropEffects.Move ) ; in this case the the drag is set to either copy or move . The example works by dragging a text object. However any type of object can be used for dragging.

Drop Data

Use the DragEnter function to perform the type of drop operation private void listView1_DragEnter(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs e) { if (e.Data.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text)) e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Copy; else e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None; } In this case the effects are either copy or none.

Here is the complete listing of the DragDrop Class .. using System; using System.Drawing; using System.Collections; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Data; namespace ODLV { /// /// Summary description for Form1. /// public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form { private System.Windows.Forms.ListView listView1; private System.Windows.Forms.Splitter splitter1; private System.Windows.Forms.ListView listView2; private System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader columnHeader1; private System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader columnHeader2; /// /// Required designer variable. /// private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null; bool lv1_mdown = false ; private System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader columnHeader3; private System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader columnHeader5; bool lv2_mdown = false; public Form1() { // // Required for Windows Form Designer support // InitializeComponent(); // // TODO: Add any constructor code after InitializeComponent call // } /// /// Clean up any resources being used. /// protected override void Dispose( bool disposing ) { if( disposing ) { if (components != null) { components.Dispose(); } } base.Dispose( disposing ); } #region Windows Form Designer generated code /// /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify /// the contents of this method with the code editor. /// private void InitializeComponent() { this.listView1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ListView(); this.columnHeader1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this.columnHeader3 = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this.splitter1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Splitter(); this.listView2 = new System.Windows.Forms.ListView(); this.columnHeader2 = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this.columnHeader5 = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this.SuspendLayout(); // // listView1 // this.listView1.AllowDrop = true; this.listView1.Columns.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader[] { this.columnHeader1, this.columnHeader3}); this.listView1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Top; this.listView1.FullRowSelect = true; this.listView1.MultiSelect = false; this.listView1.Name = "listView1"; this.listView1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(232, 176); this.listView1.TabIndex = 0; this.listView1.View = System.Windows.Forms.View.Details; this.listView1.MouseDown += new System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler(this.listView1_MouseDown); this.listView1.DragDrop += new System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler(this.listView1_DragDrop); this.listView1.DragEnter += new System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler(this.listView1_DragEnter); this.listView1.MouseMove += new System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler(this.listView1_MouseMove); // // columnHeader1 // this.columnHeader1.Text = "COL1"; this.columnHeader1.Width = 100; // // columnHeader3 // this.columnHeader3.Text = "COL2"; this.columnHeader3.Width = 100; // // splitter1 // this.splitter1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Top; this.splitter1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 176); this.splitter1.Name = "splitter1"; this.splitter1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(232, 3); this.splitter1.TabIndex = 1; this.splitter1.TabStop = false; // // listView2 // this.listView2.AllowDrop = true; this.listView2.Columns.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader[] { this.columnHeader2, this.columnHeader5}); this.listView2.Cursor = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Arrow; this.listView2.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill; this.listView2.FullRowSelect = true; this.listView2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 179); this.listView2.MultiSelect = false; this.listView2.Name = "listView2"; this.listView2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(232, 226); this.listView2.TabIndex = 2; this.listView2.View = System.Windows.Forms.View.Details; this.listView2.MouseDown += new System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler(this.listView2_MouseDown); this.listView2.DragDrop += new System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler(this.listView2_DragDrop); this.listView2.DragEnter += new System.Windows.Forms.DragEventHandler(this.listView2_DragEnter); this.listView2.MouseMove += new System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler(this.listView2_MouseMove); // // columnHeader2 // this.columnHeader2.Text = "COL1"; this.columnHeader2.Width = 100; // // columnHeader5 // this.columnHeader5.Text = "COL2"; this.columnHeader5.Width = 100; // // Form1 // this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13); this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(232, 405); this.Controls.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.Control[] { this.listView2, this.splitter1, this.listView1}); this.Name = "Form1"; this.Text = "Form1"; this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Load); this.ResumeLayout(false); } #endregion /// /// The main entry point for the application. /// [STAThread] static void Main() { Application.Run(new Form1()); } private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { ImageList il = new ImageList(); il.Images.Add(new System.Drawing.Icon("D:\smk\odlv\tick.ico")); listView1.SmallImageList = il ; ImageList i2 = new ImageList(); i2.Images.Add(new System.Drawing.Icon("D:\smk\odlv\key04.ico")); listView2.SmallImageList = i2 ; string[] items = new string[2]; items[0] = "LA" ; items[1] = "Los Angeles"; listView1.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); items[0] = "WA" ; items[1] = "Seattle"; listView1.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); items[0] = "IL" ; items[1] = "Chicago"; listView1.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); items[0] = "FR" ; items[1] = "Paris"; listView2.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); items[0] = "BR" ; items[1] = "London"; listView2.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); items[0] = "IN" ; items[1] = "Mumbai"; listView2.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); } private void listView1_DragDrop(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs e) { string textBox1 = e.Data.GetData(DataFormats.Text).ToString(); string[] items = textBox1.Split(','); listView1.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); lv1_mdown = false ; lv2_mdown = false ; } private void listView2_DragDrop(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs e) { string textBox1 = e.Data.GetData(DataFormats.Text).ToString(); string[] items = textBox1.Split(','); listView2.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(items,0)); lv2_mdown = false ; lv1_mdown = false ; } private void listView2_DragEnter(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs e) { if (e.Data.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text)) e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Copy; else e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None; } private void listView1_DragEnter(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs e) { if (e.Data.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text)) e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Copy; else e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None; } private void listView1_MouseMove(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) { if ( ! lv1_mdown ) return ; if ( e.Button == MouseButtons.Right ) return ; string str = GetItemText(listView1) ; if ( str == "" ) return ; listView1.DoDragDrop(str , DragDropEffects.Copy | DragDropEffects.Move ) ; } private void listView2_MouseMove(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) { if ( ! lv2_mdown ) return ; if ( e.Button == MouseButtons.Right ) return ; string str = GetItemText(listView2) ; if ( str == "" ) return ; listView2.DoDragDrop(str, DragDropEffects.Copy | DragDropEffects.Move ) ; } private void listView1_MouseDown(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) { lv1_mdown = true ; } private void listView2_MouseDown(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) { lv2_mdown = true ; } public string GetItemText(ListView LVIEW) { int nTotalSelected = LVIEW.SelectedIndices.Count; if ( nTotalSelected <= 0 ) return ""; IEnumerator selCol = LVIEW.SelectedItems.GetEnumerator(); selCol.MoveNext() ; ListViewItem lvi = (ListViewItem)selCol.Current; string mDir = ""; for ( int i=0; i < lvi.SubItems.Count;i++) mDir += lvi.SubItems[i].Text +","; mDir = mDir.Substring(0,mDir.Length-1); return mDir ; } } }