How to change color of CListCtrl column

Question

I want to change the background color of a specific column to a color of the dialog (grey). How can I achive it?

void CUcsOpTerminalDlg::OnCustomdrawFeatureList(         


        

Answer 1

If you are using the "new" MFC Feature Pack classes (VS 2008 SP1 and up), you can use CMFCListCtrl instead of CListCtrl and use CMFCListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor.

You would have to derive your own class from it and override CMFCListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor. There, just check the column index and return the background color you need:

COLORREF CMyColorfulListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor(int nRow,int nColumn)
{
    if (nColumn == THE_COLUMN_IM_INTERESTED_IN)
    {
        return WHATEVER_COLOR_I_NEED;
    }
    return CMFCListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor(nRow, nColumn);
}

Or, if you need the dialog to make the decission, you can query the dialog from that function:

COLORREF CMyColorfulListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor(int nRow,int nColumn)
{
    COLORREF color = GetParent()->SendMessage(UWM_QUERY_ITEM_COLOR, nRow, nColumn);

    if ( color == ((COLORREF)-1) ) 
    { // If the parent doesn't set the color, let the base class decide
        color = CMFCListCtrl::OnGetCellBkColor(nRow, nColumn);
    }    
    return color;
}

Note that UWM_QUERY_ITEM_COLOR is a custom message. I usually use Registered Windows Messages as explained here.