Hiding items in TListBox while filtering by String

Question

Short Version: Is there any way to control or modify LisBox items individually? for example set their Visible property to False separately. I foun

Answer 1

This is something I often do, but with list views instead of list boxes. The basic principles are the same, though.

I tend to store the individual items as objects, which are reference types in Delphi. And I keep them all in one main unfiltered list, which owns the objects, while I maintain a filtered list (which does not own the objects) for display purposes. Like @Sertac, I combine this with a virtual list view.

To see how this works in practice, create a new VCL application and drop a list view (lvDisplay) and an edit control (eFilter) on the main form:

Notice I have added three columns to the list view control: "Name", "Age", and "Colour". I also make it virtual (OwnerData = True).

Now define the class for the individual data items:

type
  TDogInfo = class
    Name: string;
    Age: Integer;
    Color: string;
    constructor Create(const AName: string; AAge: Integer; const AColor: string);
    function Matches(const AText: string): Boolean;
  end;

where

{ TDogInfo }

constructor TDogInfo.Create(const AName: string; AAge: Integer;
  const AColor: string);
begin
  Name := AName;
  Age := AAge;
  Color := AColor;
end;

function TDogInfo.Matches(const AText: string): Boolean;
begin
  Result := ContainsText(Name, AText) or ContainsText(Age.ToString, AText) or
    ContainsText(Color, AText);
end;

And let us create the unfiltered list of dogs:

TForm1 = class(TForm)
  eFilter: TEdit;
  lvDisplay: TListView;
  procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
  procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
private
  FList, FFilteredList: TObjectList;
public
end;

where

function GetRandomDogName: string;
const
  DogNames: array[0..5] of string = ('Buster', 'Fido', 'Pluto', 'Spot', 'Bill', 'Rover');
begin
  Result := DogNames[Random(Length(DogNames))];
end;

function GetRandomDogColor: string;
const
  DogColors: array[0..2] of string = ('Brown', 'Grey', 'Black');
begin
  Result := DogColors[Random(Length(DogColors))];
end;

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
var
  i: Integer;
begin

  FList := TObjectList.Create(True); // Owns the objects

  // Populate with sample data
  for i := 1 to 1000 do
    FList.Add(
      TDogInfo.Create(GetRandomDogName, Random(15), GetRandomDogColor)
    );

  FFilteredList := FList;

  lvDisplay.Items.Count := FFilteredList.Count;
  lvDisplay.Invalidate;

end;

procedure TForm1.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if FFilteredList <> FList then
    FreeAndNil(FFilteredList);
  FreeAndNil(FList);
end;

The idea is that the list view control always displays the FFilteredList, which either points to the same object instance as FList, or points to a filtered (or sorted) version of it:

// The list view's OnData event handler
procedure TForm1.lvDisplayData(Sender: TObject; Item: TListItem);
begin

  if FFilteredList = nil then
    Exit;

  if not InRange(Item.Index, 0, FFilteredList.Count - 1) then
    Exit;

  Item.Caption := FFilteredList[Item.Index].Name;
  Item.SubItems.Add(FFilteredList[Item.Index].Age.ToString);
  Item.SubItems.Add(FFilteredList[Item.Index].Color);

end;

// The edit control's OnChange handler
procedure TForm1.eFilterChange(Sender: TObject);
var
  i: Integer;
begin

  if string(eFilter.Text).IsEmpty then // no filter, display all items
  begin
    if FFilteredList <> FList then
    begin
      FreeAndNil(FFilteredList);
      FFilteredList := FList;
    end;
  end
  else
  begin
    if (FFilteredList = nil) or (FFilteredList = FList) then
      FFilteredList := TObjectList.Create(False); // doesn't own the objects
    FFilteredList.Clear;
    for i := 0 to FList.Count - 1 do
      if FList[i].Matches(eFilter.Text) then
        FFilteredList.Add(FList[i]);
  end;

  lvDisplay.Items.Count := FFilteredList.Count;
  lvDisplay.Invalidate;

end;

The result:

Notice that there always is only one in-memory object for each dog, so if you rename a dog, the changes will reflect in the list view, filtered or not. (But don't forget to invalidate it!)