How to set a listview FocusedItem programatically

Question

How can I set the FocusedItem property programatically?

I've tried this so far with no success:

If lvw.FocusedItem Is Nothing Then
    If lvw.Items.Count > 0 Then
    lvw.Focus()
    lvw.HideSelection = False
    lvw.Items(0).Selected = True
    lvw.Items(0).Focused = True
    lvw.FocusedItem = lvw.Items(0)
    lvw.Select()
    End If
End If

btw the form where the listview is has not called the ShowDialog method yet. Can this be the reason for this not to work?

Answer 1

You have to understand that each control on the Form and the Form itself is a window and for the window to have focus it must first be created and assigned a handle.

For a basic description of this, I refer you to: All About Handles in Windows Forms The following excerpts are from the referenced article.

What is a Handle?

A handle (HWND) is the return value from CreateWindowEx which the Windows Operating System uses to identify a window. A "window" in win32 is a much broader concept than you may think - each individual button, combobox, listbox etc comprises a window. (For more information see About Window Classes ) NOTE: there are other things known as "Handles" in the Framework - e.g. GDI Handles from a Bitmap or Handles to Device Contexts (HDCs) - this article discusses HWNDs only.

...

When does a Control create its handle? (When does a control call CreateWindowEx?)

A control tries as much as possible to defer creating its handle. This is because setting properties forces chatty interop between the CLR and user32.

Typically the handles for all the controls are created before the Form.Load event is called. Handles can also be created if the "Handle" property is called and the handle has not yet been created, or CreateControl() is called.

So a window's handle is not immediately created when you instantiate a control. However, you can force a control to create its handle by referencing its Handle property.

So if you first get the ListView to create its handle, then when you set those properties that you wanted.

Dim f2 As New Form2
' you do not need this condition, it is here only for demonstration purposes
' so that you can step through the code in the debugger and observe the
' code execution.
If Not f2.ListView1.IsHandleCreated Then
   ' retrieval of the Handle will cause a handle to be created
   ' if it has not yet been created
   ' if you delete the If-Then block, you will need to retain the 
   ' following statement

   Dim h As IntPtr = f2.ListView1.Handle
End If

f2.ListView1.FocusedItem = f2.ListView1.Items(2)
f2.ListView1.Items(2).Selected = True
f2.ListView1.Items(2).Focused = True
f2.ActiveControl = f2.ListView1
f2.ShowDialog()