Make ListView FindItemWithText search anywhere in text - vb.net

Question

Dim query as String = "Card" ' Just an example, I would call this with a function
Dim itemF As ListViewItem = ListView1.FindItemWithText(query, False, 0, True)
If (itemF IsNot Nothing) Then
itemF.Selected = True
Else
Alert("Nothing was found")
End If
So I am trying to use this code to add a search functionality. The problem is, this works if I'm trying to go from the beginning to the end. But if I wanted to search Card and find W_Card_Brt_Better, I won't get expected results. Though if I search, W_Card, the item will be selected.

Answer 1

ListView.FindItemWithText always searches using BeginsWith pattern - this is by design, as specified in the docs:
ListView.FindItemWithText Method (String) # MSDN
Finds the first ListViewItem that begins with the specified text value.
If you are trying to do anything more custom than that, I suggest you search against the underlying data source instead. You should generally avoid performing any kind of business logic/validation from the UI control directly.
In the business object, you can do a simple for loop, or build a dictionary, to make it search faster, and encapsulate this search functionality within a method or property, which you will call from the UI layer.

Answer 2

FindItemWithText finds the first ListViewItem ... that begins with the specified text value. If you are looking for Items/SubItems which simply CONTAINS the text you have to iterate and search yourself.
To make it like FindItemWithText, specify a start point and Bool for the SubItem search:
Function FindItemContainingText(lv As ListView, searchSubs As Boolean,
StartIndex As Integer,
searchTarget As String) As ListViewItem
If (StartIndex >= lv.Items.Count) Or (StartIndex < 0) Then
Return Nothing
End If
Dim FindMe As String = searchTarget.ToLowerInvariant
Dim subStopper As Integer = 0
For i As Integer = StartIndex To lv.Items.Count - 1
If searchSubs Then
subStopper = lv.Items(i).SubItems.Count - 1
Else
' Item.Text/Label can be read from SubItem(0)
' just look at it if not searching subI's
subStopper = 0
End If
For n As Integer = 0 To subStopper
If lv.Items(i).SubItems(n).Text.ToLowerInvariant.Contains(FindMe) Then
' return the LVI that contains the text
Return lv.Items(i)
End If
Next n
Next
' note!
Return Nothing
End Function