Multi column 1D array (2D view for 1D arrays / lists)

[Andi_S]

On a compact UI 1D arrays are very often uncomfortable.

On the one hand only a few elements can be shown, on the other hand there is often a lot of free space (usually on the side of the array).

My suggestion is to implement a 2D-View of a 1D-Array. Please see the pictures (1D-Array of a cluster control) for better understanding.

Left image: current view, 6 out of 10 elements are visible; right image: suggested 2D-View, all elements are visible

 

[altenbach]

All you need is "reshape" it to 2D for display and maybe add a transpose operation.

The fancy way would be to make an Xcontrol.

[fabric]

@altenbach: Not so nice if the columns are of uneven lengths. That information is lost in 2D array...

@Andi_S: How would scrolling work?

[Andi_S]

@altenbach: for displaying it works as long as the number of elements is less than the visible number of cells. But as fabric wrote - the length information would be lost

@ fabric: scrolling should be identical to a 1D view just that the first field of colmn two moves to the last field of colmn 1 if you scroll down by one element.

[_Y_]

IMHO, in most of the cases, such UI could be confusing. In rare cases when it is needed, two UI units can be used (and the data array split at code side).

[Andi_S]

how do you want to implement the scrolling through the data in this case?