Select a range

A range is the app’s: the list draws it but never changes it. Keep an anchor in your app state when the user starts a Visual mode, and hand the list the anchor and the cursor after every key.

Anchor and cursor

List::select_range(Some((from, to))) draws every selectable row from from to to, in either order and both included, in the selected style. The “▌ “ marker stays on the selected row alone, so the cursor still shows inside the range. Headings and blank lines inside it draw as they are. None, the default, goes back to the one selected row.

use pito_list::{Key, List, ListView, Column, Row, Styles};
use ratatui::{
    buffer::Buffer,
    layout::Rect,
    style::{Color, Style},
    widgets::Widget,
};

let mut list = List::new().with_rows((1..=6).map(|n| Row::new([format!("item {n}")])));
let anchor = list.selected();
list.key(Key::Down);
list.key(Key::Down);
list.select_range(anchor.zip(list.selected()));
assert_eq!(list.range(), Some((0, 2)));

let styles = Styles::new().selected(Style::new().bg(Color::Blue));
let area = Rect::new(0, 0, 12, 6);
let mut buffer = Buffer::empty(area);
ListView::new(&mut list, &[Column::new("Item", 6, 0)])
    .styles(styles)
    .render(area, &mut buffer);

list.select_range(None);

Rows 1 to 3 draw on blue, with the marker on row 3, the cursor:

  item 1
  item 2
▌ item 3
  item 4
  item 5
  item 6

Keys, paging, select, set_rows, update and clear all leave the range as it was set; only select_range changes it. Indices past the end of the list simply have no rows to draw. range() reads it back.

Keep cell colours under the selection

By default the selected style replaces each cell’s, part’s and mark’s own style on the selected row and the range. Styles::keep_colours(true) patches the selected style over them instead, so a selection of a background and bold keeps a red number red and a faint note faint. Whatever the selected style does set still wins: a foreground it sets colours every cell.

use pito_list::Styles;
use ratatui::style::{Color, Modifier, Style};

let styles = Styles::new()
    .selected(Style::new().bg(Color::DarkGray).add_modifier(Modifier::BOLD))
    .cursor(Style::new().fg(Color::Yellow))
    .keep_colours(true);

Styles::cursor(style) gives the marker a colour of its own, so a bold-only selection that keeps the cell colours can still colour the marker. Theme the list has every style.