Example of CListCtrl::SortItems(...) in MSDN

If we look at the documentation of CListCtrl::SortItems(...) in MSDN we find the following example of how to sort the items in reverse alphabetical order:

// Sort the item in reverse alphabetical order.

static int CALLBACK 
MyCompareProc(LPARAM lParam1, LPARAM lParam2, LPARAM lParamSort)
{
   // lParamSort contains a pointer to the list view control.

   CListCtrl* pListCtrl = (CListCtrl*) lParamSort;
   CString    strItem1 = pListCtrl->GetItemText(lParam1, 0);
   CString    strItem2 = pListCtrl->GetItemText(lParam2, 0);

   return strcmp(strItem2, strItem1);
}

void snip_CListCtrl_SortItems()
{
   // The pointer to my list view control.

   extern CListCtrl* pmyListCtrl;

   // Sort the list view items using my callback procedure.

   pmyListCtrl->SortItems(MyCompareProc, (LPARAM) pmyListCtrl);
}

There is a second problem: even if we set the 32-bit associated value of each item to be the same as the item's index this example will still not work. This is because the items will shift positions after each call to MyCompareProc(...) and the 32-bit associated values will no longer represent the item's index.

The function CListCtrl::SortItems(...) is only usefull if we store a pointer in the 32-bit associated value and we want to sort the items by some value that comes from that pointer.

One easy way of implementing reverse alphabetical sort in CListCtrl derived class is using an STL set:

#pragma warning(disable : 4786)
#include <functional>

#include <set>


struct LVITEM_less : public std::binary_function<LVITEM*, LVITEM*, bool>
{
    bool operator()(const LVITEM* pItem1, const LVITEM* pItem2) const
    {
        CString strItem1(pItem1->pszText);
        CString strItem2(pItem2->pszText);

        return (strItem1 < strItem2);
    }
};

void CSortableListCtrl::SortItemsDescending()
{
    // Sort all items in descending aphabetical order using an STL set

    typedef std::set<LVITEM*, LVITEM_less> ItemSet;
    ItemSet setItems;
    int iCount = GetItemCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < iCount; i++)
    {
        LVITEM* pLVI = new LVITEM();
        ::memset(pLVI, 0, sizeof(LVITEM));
        pLVI->iItem = i;
        pLVI->mask = LVIF_IMAGE | LVIF_INDENT | LVIF_PARAM | LVIF_STATE | LVIF_TEXT;
        pLVI->pszText = new TCHAR[1024];
        pLVI->cchTextMax = 1024;
        GetItem(pLVI);

        setItems.insert(pLVI);
    }

    // Remove all items from the list control

    DeleteAllItems();

    // Put the items back in the list control in reverse order

    int iIndex = 0;
    for (ItemSet::reverse_iterator it = setItems.rbegin(); it != setItems.rend(); ++it)
    {
        (*it)->iItem = iIndex++;
        InsertItem(*it);
        delete [] (*it)->pszText;
        delete *it;
    }
}