Performance Considerations

Internally, the GtkListStore was implemented with a linked list with a tail pointer prior to GTK+ 2.6. As a result, it was fast at data insertion and deletion, and not fast at random data access. The GtkListStore sets the GTK_TREE_MODEL_ITERS_PERSIST flag, which means that GtkTreeIters can be cached while the row exists. Thus, if access to a particular row is needed often and your code is expected to run on older versions of GTK+, it is worth keeping the iter around.

Atomic Operations

It is important to note that only the methods gtk_list_store_insert_with_values() and gtk_list_store_insert_with_valuesv() are atomic, in the sense that the row is being appended to the store and the values filled in in a single operation with regard to GtkTreeModel signaling. In contrast, using e.g. gtk_list_store_append() and then gtk_list_store_set() will first create a row, which triggers the GtkTreeModel::row-inserted signal on GtkListStore. The row, however, is still empty, and any signal handler connecting to "row-inserted" on this particular store should be prepared for the situation that the row might be empty. This is especially important if you are wrapping the GtkListStore inside a GtkTreeModelFilter and are using a GtkTreeModelFilterVisibleFunc. Using any of the non-atomic operations to append rows to the GtkListStore will cause the GtkTreeModelFilterVisibleFunc to be visited with an empty row first; the function must be prepared for that.

GtkListStore as GtkBuildable

The GtkListStore implementation of the GtkBuildable interface allows to specify the model columns with a <columns> element that may contain multiple <column> elements, each specifying one model column. The "type" attribute specifies the data type for the column.

Additionally, it is possible to specify content for the list store in the UI definition, with the <data> element. It can contain multiple <row> elements, each specifying to content for one row of the list model. Inside a <row>, the <col> elements specify the content for individual cells.

Note that it is probably more common to define your models in the code, and one might consider it a layering violation to specify the content of a list store in a UI definition, data, not presentation, and common wisdom is to separate the two, as far as possible.

<object class="GtkListStore">
  <columns>
    <column type="gchararray"/>
    <column type="gchararray"/>
    <column type="gint"/>
  </columns>
  <data>
    <row>
      <col id="0">John</col>
      <col id="1">Doe</col>
      <col id="2">25</col>
    </row>
    <row>
      <col id="0">Johan</col>
      <col id="1">Dahlin</col>
      <col id="2">50</col>
    </row>
  </data>
</object>

GtkListStore

typedef struct _GtkListStore GtkListStore;

gtk_list_store_new ()

GtkListStore* gtk_list_store_new            (gint n_columns,
                                             ...);

Creates a new list store as with n_columns columns each of the types passed in. Note that only types derived from standard GObject fundamental types are supported.

As an example, gtk_tree_store_new (3, G_TYPE_INT, G_TYPE_STRING, GDK_TYPE_PIXBUF); will create a new GtkListStore with three columns, of type int, string and GdkPixbuf respectively.

gtk_list_store_newv ()

GtkListStore* gtk_list_store_newv           (gint n_columns,
                                             GType *types);

Non-vararg creation function. Used primarily by language bindings.

gtk_list_store_set_column_types ()

void        gtk_list_store_set_column_types (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             gint n_columns,
                                             GType *types);

This function is meant primarily for GObjects that inherit from GtkListStore, and should only be used when constructing a new GtkListStore. It will not function after a row has been added, or a method on the GtkTreeModel interface is called.

gtk_list_store_set ()

void        gtk_list_store_set              (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             ...);

Sets the value of one or more cells in the row referenced by iter. The variable argument list should contain integer column numbers, each column number followed by the value to be set. The list is terminated by a -1. For example, to set column 0 with type G_TYPE_STRING to "Foo", you would write gtk_list_store_set (store, iter, 0, "Foo", -1).

gtk_list_store_set_valist ()

void        gtk_list_store_set_valist       (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             va_list var_args);

See gtk_list_store_set(); this version takes a va_list for use by language bindings.

gtk_list_store_set_value ()

void        gtk_list_store_set_value        (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             gint column,
                                             GValue *value);

Sets the data in the cell specified by iter and column. The type of value must be convertible to the type of the column.

gtk_list_store_remove ()

gboolean    gtk_list_store_remove           (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter);

Removes the given row from the list store. After being removed, iter is set to be the next valid row, or invalidated if it pointed to the last row in list_store.

gtk_list_store_insert ()

void        gtk_list_store_insert           (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             gint position);

Creates a new row at position. iter will be changed to point to this new row. If position is larger than the number of rows on the list, then the new row will be appended to the list. The row will be empty after this function is called. To fill in values, you need to call gtk_list_store_set() or gtk_list_store_set_value().

gtk_list_store_insert_before ()

void        gtk_list_store_insert_before    (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             GtkTreeIter *sibling);

Inserts a new row before sibling. If sibling is NULL, then the row will be appended to the end of the list. iter will be changed to point to this new row. The row will be empty after this function is called. To fill in values, you need to call gtk_list_store_set() or gtk_list_store_set_value().

gtk_list_store_insert_after ()

void        gtk_list_store_insert_after     (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             GtkTreeIter *sibling);

Inserts a new row after sibling. If sibling is NULL, then the row will be prepended to the beginning of the list. iter will be changed to point to this new row. The row will be empty after this function is called. To fill in values, you need to call gtk_list_store_set() or gtk_list_store_set_value().

gtk_list_store_insert_with_values ()

void        gtk_list_store_insert_with_values
                                            (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             gint position,
                                             ...);

Creates a new row at position. iter will be changed to point to this new row. If position is larger than the number of rows on the list, then the new row will be appended to the list. The row will be filled with the values given to this function.

Calling gtk_list_store_insert_with_values(list_store, iter, position...) has the same effect as calling

gtk_list_store_insert (list_store, iter, position);
gtk_list_store_set (list_store, iter, ...);

with the difference that the former will only emit a row_inserted signal, while the latter will emit row_inserted, row_changed and, if the list store is sorted, rows_reordered. Since emitting the rows_reordered signal repeatedly can affect the performance of the program, gtk_list_store_insert_with_values() should generally be preferred when inserting rows in a sorted list store.

Since 2.6

gtk_list_store_insert_with_valuesv ()

void        gtk_list_store_insert_with_valuesv
                                            (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             gint position,
                                             gint *columns,
                                             GValue *values,
                                             gint n_values);

A variant of gtk_list_store_insert_with_values() which takes the columns and values as two arrays, instead of varargs. This function is mainly intended for language-bindings.

Since 2.6

gtk_list_store_prepend ()

void        gtk_list_store_prepend          (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter);

Prepends a new row to list_store. iter will be changed to point to this new row. The row will be empty after this function is called. To fill in values, you need to call gtk_list_store_set() or gtk_list_store_set_value().

gtk_list_store_append ()

void        gtk_list_store_append           (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter);

Appends a new row to list_store. iter will be changed to point to this new row. The row will be empty after this function is called. To fill in values, you need to call gtk_list_store_set() or gtk_list_store_set_value().

gtk_list_store_clear ()

void        gtk_list_store_clear            (GtkListStore *list_store);

Removes all rows from the list store.

gtk_list_store_iter_is_valid ()

gboolean    gtk_list_store_iter_is_valid    (GtkListStore *list_store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter);

Checks if the given iter is a valid iter for this GtkListStore.

Since 2.2

gtk_list_store_reorder ()

void        gtk_list_store_reorder          (GtkListStore *store,
                                             gint *new_order);

Reorders store to follow the order indicated by new_order. Note that this function only works with unsorted stores.

Since 2.2

gtk_list_store_swap ()

void        gtk_list_store_swap             (GtkListStore *store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *a,
                                             GtkTreeIter *b);

Swaps a and b in store. Note that this function only works with unsorted stores.

Since 2.2

gtk_list_store_move_before ()

void        gtk_list_store_move_before      (GtkListStore *store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             GtkTreeIter *position);

Moves iter in store to the position before position. Note that this function only works with unsorted stores. If position is NULL, iter will be moved to the end of the list.

Since 2.2

gtk_list_store_move_after ()

void        gtk_list_store_move_after       (GtkListStore *store,
                                             GtkTreeIter *iter,
                                             GtkTreeIter *position);

Moves iter in store to the position after position. Note that this function only works with unsorted stores. If position is NULL, iter will be moved to the start of the list.

Since 2.2