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ITEMIDLIST structure (shtypes.h)

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Contains a list of item identifiers.

Syntax

typedef struct _ITEMIDLIST {
  SHITEMID mkid;
} ITEMIDLIST;

Members

mkid

Type: SHITEMID

A list of item identifiers.

Remarks

A pointer to this structure, called a PIDL, is used to identify objects in the Shell namespace. For more information about pointers to item identifier lists (PIDLs) and item identifiers, see Introduction to the Shell Namespace.

ITEMIDLIST Strict Types

As of Windows Vista, several forms of ITEMIDLIST are available as data types. The three main types are:
  • IDLIST_ABSOLUTE: Fully qualified ITEMIDLIST relative to the root of the namespace. It may be multi-level.
  • IDLIST_RELATIVE: ITEMIDLIST relative to a parent folder. It may be multi-level.
  • ITEMID_CHILD: Single-level ITEMIDLIST relative to a parent folder. It contains exactly one SHITEMID structure.
These types are used if you compile your code with the symbol STRICT_TYPED_ITEMIDS before you include the Shell header files, as shown in the following example code. 

#define STRICT_TYPED_ITEMIDS    // Better type safety for IDLists

#include <shlobj.h>             // Typical Shell header file

The meaning of each of these types can be altered with one or more of the following modifiers:

  • P: The type is a pointer.
  • C: The type is constant.
  • U: The type is unaligned. It aligns to a DWORD boundary in 32-bit architectures and a QWORD boundary in 64-bit architectures.
Some examples of these modified types are:
  • PIDLIST_ABSOLUTE: The ITEMIDLIST is absolute and has been allocated, as indicated by its being non-constant. This means that it needs to be deallocated with ILFree when it is no longer needed. Because it is a direct pointer to allocated memory, it is aligned.
  • PCIDLIST_ABSOLUTE: The ITEMIDLIST is absolute and constant. This is typically used when you are passed an absolute ITEMIDLIST as a parameter but do not own it, and so are not allowed to change it.
  • PCUIDLIST_ABSOLUTE: The ITEMIDLIST is absolute, constant and unaligned. This is rarely used. Absolute ITEMIDLIST are typically allocated in memory aligned to a DWORD boundary in 32-bit architectures and to a QWORD boundary in 64-bit architectures. An absolute ITEMIDLIST would be unaligned only if it has been byte-packed along with other data, such as in a serialization format.
  • PITEMID_CHILD: The ITEMIDLIST is an allocated child ITEMIDLIST relative to a parent folder, such as a result of IEnumIDList::Next. It contains exactly one SHITEMID structure.
  • PCUITEMID_CHILD: The child ITEMIDLIST is relative, constant, and unaligned. This often occurs when you get a pointer to part of an existing PIDL. For example, if you have an absolute PIDL and call ILFindLastID, it returns the pointer to the last child SHITEMID in the list. It is unaligned because the byte-packed PIDL does not ensure that its individual SHITEMID structures fall on byte boundaries. References to child PIDLs such as these are always constant because the memory is owned by the absolute PIDL.
  • PCITEMID_CHILD: The child ITEMIDLIST is constant and aligned. This is rarely used because as a child PIDL, it is usually a part of a larger PIDL, and therefore not aligned on byte boundaries.
  • PUITEMID_CHILD: The child ITEMIDLIST is unaligned. This is rarely used because memory for this ITEMIDLIST is owned by the parent PIDL, which is absolute. This means that modifications can be made only to the parent PIDL, and so the child PIDL would need to be constant.
This list is not exhaustive. Other types can also exist.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows XP [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Header shtypes.h