How to autosize and right-align GridViewColumn data in WPF?

How can I:

• right-align the text in the ID column
• make each of the columns auto size according to the text length of the cell with the longest visible data?

Here is the code:

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="ID" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Id}" Width="40"/>
            <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="100" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

partial answer:

Thanks Kjetil, the GridViewColumn.CellTemplate works well and the Auto Width works of course but when the ObservativeCollection "Collection" is updated with longer-than-column-width data, the column sizes do not update themselves so that is only a solution for the initial display of data:

<ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="ID" Width="Auto">
                <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                    <DataTemplate>
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Id}" TextAlignment="Right" Width="40"/>
                    </DataTemplate>
                </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
            </GridViewColumn>
            <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="Auto" />
            <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}" Width="Auto"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

To make each of the columns autosize you can set Width="Auto" on the GridViewColumn.

To right-align the text in the ID column you can create a cell template using a TextBlock and set the TextAlignment. Then set the ListViewItem.HorizontalContentAlignment (using a style with a setter on the ListViewItem) to make the cell template fill the entire GridViewCell.

Maybe there is a simpler solution, but this should work.

Note: the solution requires both HorizontalContentAlignment=Stretch in Window.Resources and TextAlignment=Right in the CellTemplate.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication6.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Window.Resources>
    <Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
        <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
    </Style>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
    <ListView Name="lstCustomers" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Collection}">
        <ListView.View>
            <GridView>
                <GridViewColumn Header="ID" Width="40">
                    <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Id}" TextAlignment="Right" />
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                </GridViewColumn>
                <GridViewColumn Header="First Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding FirstName}" Width="Auto" />
                <GridViewColumn Header="Last Name" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding LastName}" Width="Auto"/>
            </GridView>
        </ListView.View>
    </ListView>
</Grid>
</Window>

If the width of the contents changes, you'll have to use this bit of code to update each column:

private void ResizeGridViewColumn(GridViewColumn column)
{
    if (double.IsNaN(column.Width))
    {
        column.Width = column.ActualWidth;
    }

    column.Width = double.NaN;
}

You'd have to fire it each time the data for that column updates.

If your listview is also re-sizing then you can use a behavior pattern to re-size the columns to fit the full ListView width. Almost the same as you using grid.column definitions

<ListView HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
          Behaviours:GridViewColumnResize.Enabled="True">
        <ListViewItem></ListViewItem>
        <ListView.View>
            <GridView>
                <GridViewColumn  Header="Column *"
                                   Behaviours:GridViewColumnResize.Width="*" >
                    <GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Text="Example1" />
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </GridViewColumn.CellTemplate>

See the following link for some examples and link to source code http://lazycowprojects.tumblr.com/post/7063214400/wpf-c-listview-column-width-auto

I have created the following class and used across the application wherever required in place of GridView:

/// <summary>
/// Represents a view mode that displays data items in columns for a System.Windows.Controls.ListView control with auto sized columns based on the column content     
/// </summary>
public class AutoSizedGridView : GridView
{        
    protected override void PrepareItem(ListViewItem item)
    {
        foreach (GridViewColumn column in Columns)
        {
            // Setting NaN for the column width automatically determines the required
            // width enough to hold the content completely.

            // If the width is NaN, first set it to ActualWidth temporarily.
            if (double.IsNaN(column.Width))
              column.Width = column.ActualWidth;

            // Finally, set the column with to NaN. This raises the property change
            // event and re computes the width.
            column.Width = double.NaN;              
        }            
        base.PrepareItem(item);
    }
}

Since I had an ItemContainerStyle I had to put the HorizontalContentAlignment in the ItemContainerStyle

    <ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
            <Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
                <Style.Triggers>
                    <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=FieldDef.DispDetail, Mode=OneWay}" Value="False">
                         <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed"/>
                    </DataTrigger>
                </Style.Triggers>
                <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" /> 
    ....