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How to: Change the Horizontal Alignment of a Column in a ListView

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By default, the content of each column in a ListViewItem is left-aligned. You can change the alignment of each column by providing a DataTemplate and setting the HorizontalAlignment property on the element within the DataTemplate. This topic shows how a ListView aligns its content by default and how to change the alignment of one column in a ListView.

Example

In the following example, the data in the Title and ISBN columns is left-aligned.

<!--XmlDataProvider is defined in a ResourceDictionary, 
    such as Window.Resources-->
<XmlDataProvider x:Key="InventoryData" XPath="Books">
    <x:XData>
        <Books xmlns="">
            <Book ISBN="0-7356-0562-9" Stock="in" Number="9">
                <Title>XML in Action</Title>
                <Summary>XML Web Technology</Summary>
            </Book>
            <Book ISBN="0-7356-1370-2" Stock="in" Number="8">
                <Title>Programming Microsoft Windows With C#</Title>
                <Summary>C# Programming using the .NET Framework</Summary>
            </Book>
            <Book ISBN="0-7356-1288-9" Stock="out" Number="7">
                <Title>Inside C#</Title>
                <Summary>C# Language Programming</Summary>
            </Book>
            <Book ISBN="0-7356-1377-X" Stock="in" Number="5">
                <Title>Introducing Microsoft .NET</Title>
                <Summary>Overview of .NET Technology</Summary>
            </Book>
            <Book ISBN="0-7356-1448-2" Stock="out" Number="4">
                <Title>Microsoft C# Language Specifications</Title>
                <Summary>The C# language definition</Summary>
            </Book>
        </Books>
    </x:XData>
</XmlDataProvider>

<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource InventoryData}, XPath=Book}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Width="300" Header="Title" 
                            DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding XPath=Title}"/>
            <GridViewColumn Width="150" Header="ISBN" 
                            DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding XPath=@ISBN}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

To change the alignment of the ISBN column, you need to specify that the HorizontalContentAlignment property of each ListViewItem is Stretch, so that the elements in each ListViewItem can span or be positioned along the entire width of each column. Because the ListView is bound to a data source, you need to create a style that sets the HorizontalContentAlignment. Next, you need to use a DataTemplate to display the content instead of using the DisplayMemberBinding property. To display the ISBN of each template, the DataTemplate can just contain a TextBlock that has its HorizontalAlignment property set to Right.

The following example defines the style and DataTemplate necessary to make the ISBN column right-aligned, and changes the GridViewColumn to reference the DataTemplate.

<!--The Style and DataTemplate are defined in a ResourceDictionary, 
    such as Window.Resources-->
<Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
    <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch"/>
</Style>

<DataTemplate x:Key="ISBNTemplate">
    <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Right" 
               Text="{Binding XPath=@ISBN}"/>
</DataTemplate>

<ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource InventoryData}, XPath=Book}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Width="300" Header="Title" 
                            DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding XPath=Title}"/>
            <GridViewColumn Width="150" Header="ISBN" 
                            CellTemplate="{StaticResource ISBNTemplate}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

See also