## wxList

wxList classes provide linked list functionality for wxWidgets, and for an application if it wishes. Depending on the form of constructor used, a list can be keyed on integer or string keys to provide a primitive look-up ability, but please note that this feature is deprecated. See wxHashMap for a faster method of storage when random access is required.

While wxList class in the previous versions of wxWidgets only could contain elements of type wxObject and had essentially untyped interface (thus allowing you to put apples in the list and read back oranges from it), the new wxList classes family may contain elements of any type and has much more strict type checking. Unfortunately, it also requires an additional line to be inserted in your program for each list class you use (which is the only solution short of using templates which is not done in wxWidgets because of portability issues).

The general idea is to have the base class wxListBase working with void * data but make all of its dangerous (because untyped) functions protected, so that they can only be used from derived classes which, in turn, expose a type safe interface. With this approach a new wxList-like class must be defined for each list type (i.e. list of ints, of wxStrings or of MyObjects). This is done with WX_DECLARE_LIST and WX_DEFINE_LIST macros like this (notice the similarity with WX_DECLARE_OBJARRAY and WX_IMPLEMENT_OBJARRAY macros):

Example

        // this part might be in a header or source (.cpp) file
        class MyListElement
        {
            ... // whatever
        };

        // declare our list class: this macro declares and partly implements MyList
        // class (which derives from wxListBase)
        WX_DECLARE_LIST(MyListElement, MyList);

        ...

        // the only requirement for the rest is to be AFTER the full declaration of
        // MyListElement (for WX_DECLARE_LIST forward declaration is enough), but
        // usually it will be found in the source file and not in the header

        #include <wx/listimpl.cpp>
        WX_DEFINE_LIST(MyList);

        // now MyList class may be used as a usual wxList, but all of its methods
        // will take/return the objects of the right (i.e. MyListElement) type. You
        // also have MyList::Node type which is the type-safe version of wxNode.
        MyList list;
        MyListElement element;
        list.Append(&element);     // ok
        list.Append(17);           // error: incorrect type

        // let's iterate over the list
        for ( MyList::Node *node = list.GetFirst(); node; node = node->GetNext() )
        {
            MyListElement *current = node->GetData();

            ...process the current element...
        }

For compatibility with previous versions wxList and wxStringList classes are still defined, but their usage is deprecated and they will disappear in the future versions completely. The use of the latter is especially discouraged as it is not only unsafe but is also much less efficient than wxArrayString class.

In the documentation of the list classes below, the template notations are used even though these classes are not really templates at all -- but it helps to think about them as if they were. You should replace wxNode<T> with wxListName::Node and T itself with the list element type (i.e. the first parameter of WX_DECLARE_LIST).

Derived from

wxObject

Include files

<wx/list.h>

Example

It is very common to iterate on a list as follows:

      ...
      wxWindow *win1 = new wxWindow(...);
      wxWindow *win2 = new wxWindow(...);

      wxList SomeList;
      SomeList.Append(win1);
      SomeList.Append(win2);

      ...

      wxNode *node = SomeList.GetFirst();
      while (node)
      {
        wxWindow *win = node->GetData();
        ...
        node = node->GetNext();
      }

To delete nodes in a list as the list is being traversed, replace

        ...
        node = node->GetNext();
        ...

with

        ...
        delete win;
        delete node;
        node = SomeList.GetFirst();
        ...

See wxNode for members that retrieve the data associated with a node, and members for getting to the next or previous node.

See also

wxNode, wxArray

Members

wxList::wxList
wxList::~wxList
wxList::Append
wxList::Clear
wxList::DeleteContents
wxList::DeleteNode
wxList::DeleteObject
wxList::Erase
wxList::Find
wxList::GetCount
wxList::GetFirst
wxList::GetLast
wxList::IndexOf
wxList::Insert
wxList::IsEmpty
wxList::Item
wxList::Member
wxList::Nth
wxList::Number
wxList::Sort

### wxList::wxList

wxList()

wxList(int n, T *objects[])

wxList(T *object, ...)

Note: keyed lists are deprecated and should not be used in new code.

wxList(unsigned int key_type)

Constructors. key_type is one of wxKEY_NONE, wxKEY_INTEGER, or wxKEY_STRING, and indicates what sort of keying is required (if any).

objects is an array of n objects with which to initialize the list.

The variable-length argument list constructor must be supplied with a terminating NULL.

### wxList::~wxList

~wxList()

Destroys the list. Also destroys any remaining nodes, but does not destroy client data held in the nodes.

### wxList::Append

wxNode<T> * Append(T *object)

Note: keyed lists are deprecated and should not be used in new code.

wxNode<T> * Append(long key, T *object)

wxNode<T> * Append(const wxString& key, T *object)

Appends a new wxNode to the end of the list and puts a pointer to the object in the node. The last two forms store a key with the object for later retrieval using the key. The new node is returned in each case.

The key string is copied and stored by the list implementation.

### wxList::Clear

void Clear()

Clears the list (but does not delete the client data stored with each node unless you called DeleteContents(`true`), in which case it deletes data).

### wxList::DeleteContents

void DeleteContents(bool destroy)

If destroy is `true`, instructs the list to call delete on the client contents of a node whenever the node is destroyed. The default is `false`.

### wxList::DeleteNode

bool DeleteNode(wxNode<T> *node)

Deletes the given node from the list, returning `true` if successful.

### wxList::DeleteObject

bool DeleteObject(T *object)

Finds the given client object and deletes the appropriate node from the list, returning `true` if successful. The application must delete the actual object separately.

### wxList::Erase

void Erase(wxNode<T> *node)

Removes element at given position.

### wxList::Find

wxNode<T> * Find(T * object)

Returns the node whose client data is object or NULL if none found.

Note: keyed lists are deprecated and should not be used in new code.

wxNode<T> * Find(long key)

wxNode<T> * Find(const wxString& key)

Returns the node whose stored key matches key. Use on a keyed list only.

### wxList::GetCount

size_t GetCount() const

Returns the number of elements in the list.

### wxList::GetFirst

wxNode<T> * GetFirst()

Returns the first node in the list (NULL if the list is empty).

### wxList::GetLast

wxNode<T> * GetLast()

Returns the last node in the list (NULL if the list is empty).

### wxList::IndexOf

int IndexOf(T* obj )

Returns the index of obj within the list or `wxNOT_FOUND` if obj is not found in the list.

### wxList::Insert

wxNode<T> * Insert(T *object)

Insert object at front of list.

wxNode<T> * Insert(size_t position, T *object)

Insert object before position, i.e. the index of the new item in the list will be equal to position. position should be less than or equal to GetCount; if it is equal to it, this is the same as calling Append.

wxNode<T> * Insert(wxNode<T> *node, T *object)

Inserts the object before the given node.

### wxList::IsEmpty

bool IsEmpty() const

Returns `true` if the list is empty, `false` otherwise.

### wxList::Item

wxNode<T> * Item(size_t index) const

Returns the node at given position in the list.

### wxList::Member

wxNode<T> * Member(T *object)

NB: This function is deprecated, use Find instead.

Returns the node associated with object if it is in the list, NULL otherwise.

### wxList::Nth

wxNode<T> * Nth(int n)

NB: This function is deprecated, use Item instead.

Returns the nth node in the list, indexing from zero (NULL if the list is empty or the nth node could not be found).

### wxList::Number

int Number()

NB: This function is deprecated, use GetCount instead.

Returns the number of elements in the list.

### wxList::Sort

void Sort(wxSortCompareFunction compfunc)

      // Type of compare function for list sort operation (as in 'qsort')
      typedef int (*wxSortCompareFunction)(const void *elem1, const void *elem2);

Allows the sorting of arbitrary lists by giving a function to compare two list elements. We use the system qsort function for the actual sorting process.

If you use untyped wxList the sort function receives pointers to wxObject pointers (wxObject **), so be careful to dereference appropriately - but, of course, a better solution is to use list of appropriate type defined with `WX_DECLARE_LIST`.

Example:

      int listcompare(const void *arg1, const void *arg2)
      {
        return(compare(**(wxString **)arg1,    // use the wxString 'compare'
                       **(wxString **)arg2));  // function
      }

      void main()
      {
        wxList list;

        list.Append(new wxString("DEF"));
        list.Append(new wxString("GHI"));
        list.Append(new wxString("ABC"));
        list.Sort(listcompare);
      }