Unselect item from a listbox

When data is retrieved from my database and placed in a listbox, the first item is always selected. However, I do not want that behavior. How do you programatically unselect items in a listbox

I know how to do it using a webform listbox, but the windowsform listbox does not work the same way.

Thanks,

Bill..

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Unselect item from a listbox

John_NewSys
Well, if you're interested in a slimy hack, I have one that appears to work.  It involves subclassing the listbox:

Public Class MyListBoxSubClasser
    Inherits NativeWindow

    Private Const LB_SETCURSEL As Integer = &H186

    Public Sub New(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr)
        MyBase.AssignHandle(hWnd)
    End Sub

    Public Sub Dispose()
        MyBase.ReleaseHandle()
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
        If m.Msg = LB_SETCURSEL Then
            m.WParam = IntPtr.op_Explicit(-1)
        End If
        MyBase.WndProc(m)
    End Sub
End Class

Then, when you are assigning your datasource to the listbox:

Dim ml As New MyListBoxSubClasser(ListBox1.Handle)

Ensure, though, that you call dispose on the object above when you are done with it.  I played around with this for about 20 minutes and the only instance that the LB_SETCURSEL message seemed to be coming through was when the datasource was being set...  Programmatic or User initiated selection did not result in this message.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have questions.
Elf
found this interesting answer at th bottom of this thread over at GotDotNet

<a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/MessageBoard/Thread.aspx id=92055">ComboBox SelectedIndex Problem Help Please!!!</a>
Jean van Schalkwyk
Clever, but no. It works until you select something. Then, setting the SelectedItem to nothing does exactly what the other techniques do -- it sets the selection back to the 0th item.
bpeikes
You can also ClearSelected() -- this isn't really easy to find, though. I'll put in a bug for the next version to try to get something a little more intuitive (maybe SelectedItems/SelectedIndices.Clear).
Craig J
Well, you're right. Just tried it and it plain doesn't work. Either way. That's not good. I'm not seeing an easy solution. Love to find one!
Honey Chris
did you try...

MyListBox.SelectedItem = Nothing
Philip Coyner
I even tried the ClearSelected() method and still did not work........

I don't know why it's so hard to programaticlly unselect items from a listbox. Clearly, all the methods I've tried do not clear the selected items. I'm wondering if there is a bug with this functionality in .Net...............

fyi, I have a dataset bound to the listbox with a valuemember & display member column.

Bill...........
UberNewbie
Well, yes, interesting hacks. Should it be this difficult

BTW, your solution (and my original one, along with the ClearSelection method--that is, all the techniques) work if you're just filling in the list manually. It's when you bind to a data source that nothing works.
Belzebuth
Well, duh. I was thinking the VB6 way, and didnt' even make the effort to look for a "correct" method. I feel stoopid. <g>
FredLarson
Set the SelectedIndex property to -1. That should do it! There may be a "cleaner" way (that is, less non-intuitive) but this works.
Unselect item from a listbox

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