C H A P T E R 1 5

Controls

List Views

A list view displays ordered records in a table in which users can resize, rearrange, and sometimes add and subtract, columns representing attributes of the data. A list view displays the entire set of objects in the leftmostcolumn,includingobjectsthatmaybecontainedinotherobjectsifthedataishierarchicallyorganized. When users reveal hidden objects in a hierarchy, the list lengthens. The other columns may shift to the right when these hidden objects are revealed, but they do not change their headings or order, because they still contain the same types of information regardless of the number of objects listed. Figure 15-79 shows an example of a list view that displays a flat list of objects (a hierarchical list of objects is shown in Figure 15-80 (page 325)).

Figure 15-79 A list view in a window

A list view

List View Usage

Use a list view when you need to display items along with various attributes of each item. If you need to display a list of items, but you don’t need to display any additional attributes, you might want to use a scrolling list instead (see “Scrolling Lists” (page 319) for more information about scrolling lists). Using a list view, you can create a column for each attribute you need to display.

Sort the rows in the list view by the selected column heading. You can implement sorting on secondary attributes behind the scenes, but the user should see only one column selected at a time. If a user clicks an already selected column heading, change the direction of the sort.

Items may be editable depending on the purpose of your application. In the Finder, for example, items in the Name column (the leftmost column) are editable when in list view, but nothing else is.

324	View Controls

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