model-view-programming.qdoc

Go to the documentation of this file.

// Copyright (C) 2016 The Qt Company Ltd.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
/*!
    \page model-view-programming.html
    \ingroup qt-basic-concepts
 
    \title Model/View Programming
    \brief A guide to Qt's extensible model/view architecture.
 
    \section1 Introduction to Model/View Programming
 
    Qt contains a set of item view classes that use a model/view
    architecture to manage the relationship between data and the way it
    is presented to the user. The separation of functionality introduced by
    this architecture gives developers greater flexibility to customize the
    presentation of items, and provides a standard model interface to allow
    a wide range of data sources to be used with existing item views.
    In this document, we give a brief introduction to the model/view paradigm,
    outline the concepts involved, and describe the architecture of the item
    view system. Each of the components in the architecture is explained,
    and examples are given that show how to use the classes provided.
 
    \section2 The model/view architecture
 
    Model-View-Controller (MVC) is a design pattern originating from
    Smalltalk that is often used when building user interfaces.
    In \l{Design Patterns}, Gamma et al. write:
 
    \quotation
    MVC consists of three kinds of objects. The Model is the application
    object, the View is its screen presentation, and the Controller defines
    the way the user interface reacts to user input. Before MVC, user
    interface designs tended to lump these objects together. MVC decouples
    them to increase flexibility and reuse.
    \endquotation
 
    If the view and the controller objects are combined, the result is
    the model/view architecture. This still separates the way that data
    is stored from the way that it is presented to the user, but provides
    a simpler framework based on the same principles. This separation
    makes it possible to display the same data in several different views,
    and to implement new types of views, without changing the underlying
    data structures.
    To allow flexible handling of user input, we introduce the concept of
    the \e delegate. The advantage of having a delegate in this framework
    is that it allows the way items of data are rendered and edited to be
    customized.
 
    \table
    \row \li \inlineimage modelview-overview.png
             {Model, view, and delegate interaction diagram}
    \li \b{The model/view architecture}
 
    The model communicates with a source of data, providing an \e interface
    for the other components in the architecture. The nature of the
    communication depends on the type of data source, and the way the model
    is implemented.
 
    The view obtains \e{model indexes} from the model; these are references
    to items of data. By supplying model indexes to the model, the view can
    retrieve items of data from the data source.
 
    In standard views, a \e delegate renders the items of data. When an item
    is edited, the delegate communicates with the model directly using
    model indexes.
    \endtable
 
    Generally, the model/view classes can be separated into the three groups
    described above: models, views, and delegates. Each of these components
    is defined by \e abstract classes that provide common interfaces and,
    in some cases, default implementations of features.
    Abstract classes are meant to be subclassed in order to provide the full
    set of functionality expected by other components; this also allows
    specialized components to be written.
 
    Models, views, and delegates communicate with each other using \e{signals
    and slots}:
 
    \list
    \li Signals from the model inform the view about changes to the data
       held by the data source.
    \li Signals from the view provide information about the user's interaction
       with the items being displayed.
    \li Signals from the delegate are used during editing to tell the
       model and view about the state of the editor.
    \endlist
 
    \section3 Models
 
    All item models are based on the QAbstractItemModel class. This class
    defines an interface that is used by views and delegates to access data.
    The data itself does not have to be stored in the model; it can be held
    in a data structure or repository provided by a separate class, a file,
    a database, or some other application component.
 
    The basic concepts surrounding models are presented in the section
    on \l{Model Classes}.
 
    QAbstractItemModel
    provides an interface to data that is flexible enough to handle views
    that represent data in the form of tables, lists, and trees. However,
    when implementing new models for list and table-like data structures,
    the QAbstractListModel and QAbstractTableModel classes are better
    starting points because they provide appropriate default implementations
    of common functions. Each of these classes can be subclassed to provide
    models that support specialized kinds of lists and tables.
 
    The process of subclassing models is discussed in the section on
    \l{Creating New Models}.
 
    Qt provides some ready-made models that can be used to handle items of
    data:
 
    \list
    \li QStringListModel is used to store a simple list of QString items.
    \li QStandardItemModel manages more complex tree structures of items, each
       of which can contain arbitrary data.
    \li QFileSystemModel provides information about files and directories in the
       local filing system.
    \li QSqlQueryModel, QSqlTableModel, and QSqlRelationalTableModel are used
       to access databases using model/view conventions.
    \endlist
 
    If these standard models do not meet your requirements, you can subclass
    QAbstractItemModel, QAbstractListModel, or QAbstractTableModel to create
    your own custom models.
 
    \section3 Views
 
    Complete implementations are provided for different kinds of
    views: QListView displays a list of items, QTableView displays data
    from a model in a table, and QTreeView shows model items of data in a
    hierarchical list. Each of these classes is based on the
    QAbstractItemView abstract base class. Although these classes are
    ready-to-use implementations, they can also be subclassed to provide
    customized views.
 
    The available views are examined in the section on \l{View Classes}.
 
    \section3 Delegates
 
    QAbstractItemDelegate is the abstract base class for delegates in the
    model/view framework. The default delegate implementation is
    provided by QStyledItemDelegate, and this is used as the default delegate
    by Qt's standard views. However, QStyledItemDelegate and QItemDelegate are
    independent alternatives to painting and providing editors for items in
    views. The difference between them is that QStyledItemDelegate uses the
    current style to paint its items. We therefore recommend using
    QStyledItemDelegate as the base class when implementing custom delegates or
    when working with Qt style sheets.
 
    Delegates are described in the section on \l{Delegate Classes}.
 
    \section3 Sorting
 
    There are two ways of approaching sorting in the model/view
    architecture; which approach to choose depends on your underlying
    model.
 
    If your model is sortable, i.e, if it reimplements the
    QAbstractItemModel::sort() function, both QTableView and QTreeView
    provide an API that allows you to sort your model data
    programmatically. In addition, you can enable interactive sorting
    (i.e. allowing the users to sort the data by clicking the view's
    headers), by connecting the QHeaderView::sortIndicatorChanged() signal
    to the QTableView::sortByColumn() slot or the
    QTreeView::sortByColumn() slot, respectively.
 
    The alternative approach, if your model does not have the required
    interface or if you want to use a list view to present your data,
    is to use a proxy model to transform the structure of your model
    before presenting the data in the view. This is covered in detail
    in the section on \l {Proxy Models}.
 
    \section3 Convenience classes
 
    A number of \e convenience classes are derived from the standard view
    classes for the benefit of applications that rely on Qt's item-based
    item view and table classes. They are not intended to be subclassed.
 
    Examples of such classes include \l QListWidget, \l QTreeWidget, and
    \l QTableWidget.
 
    These classes are less flexible than the view classes, and cannot be
    used with arbitrary models. We recommend that you use a model/view
    approach to handling data in item views unless you strongly need an
    item-based set of classes.
 
    If you wish to take advantage of the features provided by the model/view
    approach while still using an item-based interface, consider using view
    classes, such as QListView, QTableView, and QTreeView with
    QStandardItemModel.
 
    \section1 Using Models and Views
 
    The following sections explain how to use the model/view pattern
    in Qt. Each section includes an example and is followed by a
    section showing how to create new components.
 
    \section2 Two models included in Qt
 
    Two of the standard models provided by Qt are QStandardItemModel and
    QFileSystemModel. QStandardItemModel is a multi-purpose model that can be
    used to represent various different data structures needed by list, table,
    and tree views. This model also holds the items of data.
    QFileSystemModel is a model that maintains information about the contents
    of a directory. As a result, it does not hold any items of data itself, but
    simply represents files and directories on the local filing system.
 
    QFileSystemModel provides a ready-to-use model to experiment with, and can be
    easily configured to use existing data. Using this model, we can show how
    to set up a model for use with ready-made views, and explore how to
    manipulate data using model indexes.
 
    \section2 Using views with an existing model
 
    The QListView and QTreeView classes are the most suitable views
    to use with QFileSystemModel. The example presented below displays the
    contents of a directory in a tree view next to the same information in
    a list view. The views share the user's selection so that the selected
    items are highlighted in both views.
 
    \image shareddirmodel.png
    {Tree view and list view to display the same file system model}
 
    We set up a QFileSystemModel so that it is ready for use, and create some
    views to display the contents of a directory. This shows the simplest
    way to use a model. The construction and use of the model is
    performed from within a single \c main() function:
 
    \snippet shareddirmodel/main.cpp 0
 
    The model is set up to use data from a certain file system. The call to
    \l{QFileSystemModel::}{setRootPath()} tells the model which drive on the
    file system to expose to the views.
 
    We create two views so that we can examine the items held in the model in two
    different ways:
 
    \snippet shareddirmodel/main.cpp 5
 
    The views are constructed in the same way as other widgets. Setting up
    a view to display the items in the model is simply a matter of calling its
    \l{QAbstractItemView::setModel()}{setModel()} function with the directory
    model as the argument. We filter the data supplied by the model by calling
    the \l{QAbstractItemView::}{setRootIndex()} function on each view, passing
    a suitable \e{model index} from the file system model for the current
    directory.
 
    The \c index() function used in this case is unique to QFileSystemModel; we
    supply it with a directory and it returns a model index. Model indexes are
    discussed in \l{Model Classes}.
 
    The rest of the function just displays the views within a splitter
    widget, and runs the application's event loop:
 
    \snippet shareddirmodel/main.cpp 8
 
    In the above example, we neglected to mention how to handle selections
    of items. This subject is covered in more detail in the section about
    \l{Handling Selections in Item Views}.
 
    \section1 Model Classes
 
    Before examining how selections are handled, you may find it
    useful to examine the concepts used in the model/view framework.
 
    \section2 Basic concepts
 
    In the model/view architecture, the model provides a standard interface
    that views and delegates use to access data. In Qt, the standard
    interface is defined by the QAbstractItemModel class. No matter how the
    items of data are stored in any underlying data structure, all subclasses
    of QAbstractItemModel represent the data as a hierarchical structure
    containing tables of items. Views use this \e convention to access items
    of data in the model, but they are not restricted in the way that they
    present this information to the user.
 
    \image modelview-models.png {List model, table model, and tree model}
 
    Models also notify any attached views about changes to data through the
    signals and slots mechanism.
 
    This section describes some basic concepts that are central to the way
    items of data are accessed by other components via a model class. More
    advanced concepts are discussed in later sections.
 
    \section3 Model indexes
 
    To ensure that the representation of the data is kept separate from the
    way it is accessed, the concept of a \e{model index} is introduced. Each
    piece of information that can be obtained via a model is represented by
    a model index. Views and delegates use these indexes to request items of
    data to display.
 
    As a result, only the model needs to know how to obtain data, and the type
    of data managed by the model can be defined fairly generally. Model indexes
    contain a pointer to the model that created them, and this prevents
    confusion when working with more than one model.
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 0
 
    Model indexes provide \e temporary references to pieces of information, and
    can be used to retrieve or modify data via the model. Since models may
    reorganize their internal structures from time to time, model indexes may
    become invalid, and \e{should not be stored}. If a long-term reference to a
    piece of information is required, a \e{persistent model index} must be
    created. This provides a reference to the information that the model keeps
    up-to-date. Temporary model indexes are provided by the QModelIndex class,
    and persistent model indexes are provided by the QPersistentModelIndex
    class.
 
    To obtain a model index that corresponds to an item of data, three
    properties must be specified to the model: a row number, a column number,
    and the model index of a parent item. The following sections describe
    and explain these properties in detail.
 
    \section3 Rows and columns
 
    In its most basic form, a model can be accessed as a simple table in which
    items are located by their row and column numbers. \e{This does not mean
    that the underlying pieces of data are stored in an array structure}; the
    use of row and column numbers is only a convention to allow components to
    communicate with each other. We can retrieve information about any given
    item by specifying its row and column numbers to the model, and we receive
    an index that represents the item:
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 1
 
    Models that provide interfaces to simple, single level data structures like
    lists and tables do not need any other information to be provided but, as
    the above code indicates, we need to supply more information when obtaining
    a model index.
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \inlineimage modelview-tablemodel.png
              {Structure of the table model using rows and columns}
    \li \b{Rows and columns}
 
    The diagram shows a representation of a basic table model in which each
    item is located by a pair of row and column numbers. We obtain a model
    index that refers to an item of data by passing the relevant row and
    column numbers to the model.
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 2
 
    Top level items in a model are always referenced by specifying
    \c QModelIndex() as their parent item. This is discussed in the next
    section.
    \endtable
 
    \section3 Parents of items
 
    The table-like interface to item data provided by models is ideal when
    using data in a table or list view; the row and column number system maps
    exactly to the way the views display items. However, structures such as
    tree views require the model to expose a more flexible interface to the
    items within. As a result, each item can also be the parent of another
    table of items, in much the same way that a top-level item in a tree view
    can contain another list of items.
 
    When requesting an index for a model item, we must provide some information
    about the item's parent. Outside the model, the only way to refer to an
    item is through a model index, so a parent model index must also be given:
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 3
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \inlineimage modelview-treemodel.png
             {Structure of the tree model with parent, row, and column items}
    \li \b{Parents, rows, and columns}
 
    The diagram shows a representation of a tree model in which each item is
    referred to by a parent, a row number, and a column number.
 
    Items "A" and "C" are represented as top-level siblings in the model:
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 4
 
    Item "A" has a number of children. A model index for item "B" is
    obtained with the following code:
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 5
    \endtable
 
    \section3 Item roles
 
    Items in a model can perform various \e roles for other components,
    allowing different kinds of data to be supplied for different situations.
    For example, Qt::DisplayRole is used to access a string that can be
    displayed as text in a view. Typically, items contain data for a number of
    different roles, and the standard roles are defined by Qt::ItemDataRole.
 
    We can ask the model for the item's data by passing it the model index
    corresponding to the item, and by specifying a role to obtain the type
    of data we want:
 
    \snippet code/doc_src_model-view-programming.cpp 6
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \inlineimage modelview-roles.png {Different roles in a model}
    \li \b{Item roles}
 
    The role indicates to the model which type of data is being referred to.
    Views can display the roles in different ways, so it is important to
    supply appropriate information for each role.
 
    The \l{Creating New Models} section covers some specific uses of roles in
    more detail.
    \endtable
 
    Most common uses for item data are covered by the standard roles defined in
    Qt::ItemDataRole. By supplying appropriate item data for each role, models
    can provide hints to views and delegates about how items should be
    presented to the user. Different kinds of views have the freedom to
    interpret or ignore this information as required. It is also possible to
    define additional roles for application-specific purposes.
 
    \section3 Summary
 
    \list
    \li Model indexes give views and delegates information about the location
       of items provided by models in a way that is independent of any
       underlying data structures.
    \li Items are referred to by their row and column numbers, and by the model
       index of their parent items.
    \li Model indexes are constructed by models at the request of other
       components, such as views and delegates.
    \li If a valid model index is specified for the parent item when an index is
       requested using \l{QAbstractItemModel::index()}{index()}, the index
       returned refers to an item beneath that parent item in the model.
       The index obtained refers to a child of that item.
    \li If an invalid model index is specified for the parent item when an index
       is requested using \l{QAbstractItemModel::index()}{index()}, the index
       returned refers to a top-level item in the model.
    \li The \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{role} distinguishes between the
       different kinds of data associated with an item.
    \endlist
 
    \section2 Using model indexes
 
    To demonstrate how data can be retrieved from a model, using model
    indexes, we set up a QFileSystemModel without a view and display the
    names of files and directories in a widget.
    Although this does not show a normal way of using a model, it demonstrates
    the conventions used by models when dealing with model indexes.
 
    QFileSystemModel loading is asynchronous to minimize system resource use.
    We have to take that into account when dealing with this model.
 
    We construct a file system model in the following way:
 
    \snippet simplemodel-use/main.cpp 0
 
    In this case, we start by setting up a default QFileSystemModel. We connect
    its signal \c directoryLoaded(QString) to a lambda, in which we will
    obtain a parent index for the directory using a specific
    implementation of \l{QFileSystemModel::}{index()} provided by that model.
 
    In the lambda, we determine the number of rows in the model using the
     \l{QFileSystemModel::}{rowCount()} function.
 
 
    For simplicity, we are only interested in the items in the first column
    of the model. We examine each row in turn, obtaining a model index for
    the first item in each row, and read the data stored for that item
    in the model.
 
    \snippet simplemodel-use/main.cpp 1
 
    To obtain a model index, we specify the row number, column number (zero
    for the first column), and the appropriate model index for the parent
    of all the items that we want.
    The text stored in each item is retrieved using the model's
    \l{QFileSystemModel::}{data()} function. We specify the model index and
    the \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{DisplayRole} to obtain data for the
    item in the form of a string.
 
    \snippet simplemodel-use/main.cpp 2
    \codeline
    \snippet simplemodel-use/main.cpp 3
 
    Finally, we set the root path of the QFileSystemModel so it starts
    loading data and triggers the lambda.
 
    The above example demonstrates the basic principles used to retrieve
    data from a model:
 
    \list
    \li The dimensions of a model can be found using
       \l{QAbstractItemModel::rowCount()}{rowCount()} and
       \l{QAbstractItemModel::columnCount()}{columnCount()}.
       These functions generally require a parent model index to be
       specified.
    \li Model indexes are used to access items in the model. The row, column,
       and parent model index are needed to specify the item.
    \li To access top-level items in a model, specify a null model index
       as the parent index with \c QModelIndex().
    \li Items contain data for different roles. To obtain the data for a
       particular role, both the model index and the role must be supplied
       to the model.
    \endlist
 
    \section2 Further reading
 
    New models can be created by implementing the standard interface
    provided by QAbstractItemModel. In the \l{Creating New Models}
    section, we demonstrate this by creating a convenient ready-to-use
    model for holding lists of strings.
 
    \section1 View Classes
 
    \section2 Concepts
 
    In the model/view architecture, the view obtains items of data from the
    model and presents them to the user. The way that the data is
    presented need not resemble the representation of the data provided by
    the model, and may be \e{completely different} from the underlying data
    structure used to store items of data.
 
    The separation of content and presentation is achieved by the use of a
    standard model interface provided by QAbstractItemModel, a standard view
    interface provided by QAbstractItemView, and the use of model indexes
    that represent items of data in a general way.
    Views typically manage the overall layout of the data obtained from
    models. They may render individual items of data themselves, or use
    \l{Delegate Classes}{delegates} to handle both rendering and editing
    features.
 
    As well as presenting data, views handle navigation between items,
    and some aspects of item selection. The views also implement basic
    user interface features, such as context menus and drag and drop.
    A view can provide default editing facilities for items, or it may
    work with a \l{Delegate Classes}{delegate} to provide a custom
    editor.
 
    A view can be constructed without a model, but a model must be
    provided before it can display useful information. Views keep track of
    the items that the user has selected through the use of
    \l{Handling Selections in Item Views}{selections} which can be maintained
    separately for each view, or shared between multiple views.
 
    Some views, such as QTableView and QTreeView, display headers as well
    as items. These are also implemented by a view class, QHeaderView.
    Headers usually access the same model as the view that contains them.
    They retrieve data from the model using the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerData()} function, and usually display
    header information in the form of a label. New headers can be
    subclassed from the QHeaderView class to provide more specialized
    labels for views.
 
    \section2 Using an existing view
 
    Qt provides three ready-to-use view classes that present data from
    models in ways that are familiar to most users.
    QListView can display items from a model as a simple list, or in the
    form of a classic icon view. QTreeView displays items from a
    model as a hierarchy of lists, allowing deeply nested structures to be
    represented in a compact way. QTableView presents items from a model
    in the form of a table, much like the layout of a spreadsheet
    application.
 
    \image standard-views.png {List view, tree view, and table view}
 
    The default behavior of the standard views shown above should be
    sufficient for most applications. They provide basic editing
    facilities, and can be customized to suit the needs of more specialized
    user interfaces.
 
    \section3 Using a model
 
    We take the string list model that \l{Creating New Models}{we created as
    an example model}, set it up with some data, and construct a view to
    display the contents of the model. This can all be performed within a
    single function:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/main.cpp 0
 
    Note that the \c StringListModel is declared as a \l QAbstractItemModel.
    This allows us to use the abstract interface to the model, and
    ensures that the code still works, even if we replace the string list
    model with a different model.
 
    The list view provided by \l QListView is sufficient for presenting
    the items in the string list model. We construct the view, and set up
    the model using the following lines of code:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/main.cpp 2
    \snippet stringlistmodel/main.cpp 4
 
    The view is shown in the normal way:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/main.cpp 5
 
    The view renders the contents of a model, accessing data via the model's
    interface. When the user tries to edit an item, the view uses a default
    delegate to provide an editor widget.
 
    \image stringlistmodel.png {List of text using a string list model}
 
    The above image shows how a QListView represents the data in the string
    list model. Since the model is editable, the view automatically allows
    each item in the list to be edited using the default delegate.
 
    \section3 Using multiple views of a model
 
    Providing multiple views onto the same model is simply a matter of
    setting the same model for each view. In the following code we create
    two table views, each using the same simple table model which we have
    created for this example:
 
    \snippet sharedtablemodel/main.cpp 0
    \codeline
    \snippet sharedtablemodel/main.cpp 1
 
    The use of signals and slots in the model/view architecture means that
    changes to the model can be propagated to all the attached views,
    ensuring that we can always access the same data regardless of the
    view being used.
 
    \image sharedmodel-tableviews.png
           {Two table views share a model, but not share the selection model}
 
    The above image shows two different views onto the same model, each
    containing a number of selected items. Although the data from the model
    is shown consistently across view, each view maintains its own internal
    selection model. This can be useful in certain situations but, for
    many applications, a shared selection model is desirable.
 
    \section2 Handling selections of items
 
    The mechanism for handling selections of items within views is provided
    by the \l QItemSelectionModel class. All of the standard views construct
    their own selection models by default, and interact with them in the
    normal way. The selection model being used by a view can be obtained
    through the \l{QAbstractItemView::selectionModel()}{selectionModel()}
    function, and a replacement selection model can be specified with
    \l{QAbstractItemView::setSelectionModel()}{setSelectionModel()}.
    The ability to control the selection model used by a view is useful
    when we want to provide multiple consistent views onto the same model
    data.
 
    Generally, unless you are subclassing a model or view, you don't
    need to manipulate the contents of selections directly. However,
    the interface to the selection model can be accessed, if required,
    and this is explored in \l{Handling Selections in Item Views}.
 
    \section3 Sharing selections among views
 
    Although it is convenient that the view classes provide their own
    selection models by default, when we use more than one view onto the
    same model it is often desirable that both the model's data and the
    user's selection are shown consistently in all views.
    Since the view classes allow their internal selection models to be
    replaced, we can achieve a unified selection between views with the
    following line:
 
    \snippet sharedtablemodel/main.cpp 2
 
    The second view is given the selection model for the first view.
    Both views now operate on the same selection model, keeping both
    the data and the selected items synchronized.
 
    \image sharedselection-tableviews.png
           {Two table views with the same selection model}
 
    In the example shown above, two views of the same type were used to
    display the same model's data. However, if two different types of view
    were used, the selected items may be represented very differently in
    each view; for example, a contiguous selection in a table view can be
    represented as a fragmented set of highlighted items in a tree view.
 
    \section1 Delegate Classes
 
    \section2 Concepts
 
    Unlike the Model-View-Controller pattern, the model/view design does not
    include a completely separate component for managing interaction with
    the user. Generally, the view is responsible for the presentation of
    model data to the user, and for processing user input. To allow some
    flexibility in the way this input is obtained, the interaction is
    performed by delegates. These components provide input capabilities
    and are also responsible for rendering individual items in some views.
    The standard interface for controlling delegates is defined in the
    \l QAbstractItemDelegate class.
 
    Delegates are expected to be able to render their contents themselves
    by implementing the \l{QStyledItemDelegate::paint()}{paint()}
    and \l{QStyledItemDelegate::sizeHint()}{sizeHint()} functions.
    However, simple widget-based delegates can subclass \l QStyledItemDelegate
    instead of \l QAbstractItemDelegate, and take advantage of the default
    implementations of these functions.
 
    Editors for delegates can be implemented either by using widgets to manage
    the editing process or by handling events directly. The first approach is
    covered later in this section.
 
    \section2 Using an existing delegate
 
    The standard views provided with Qt use instances of \l QStyledItemDelegate
    to provide editing facilities. This default implementation of the
    delegate interface renders items in the usual style for each of the
    standard views: \l QListView, \l QTableView, and \l QTreeView.
 
    All the standard roles are handled by the default delegate used by
    the standard views. The way these are interpreted is described in the
    QStyledItemDelegate documentation.
 
    The delegate used by a view is returned by the
    \l{QAbstractItemView::itemDelegate()}{itemDelegate()} function.
    The \l{QAbstractItemView::setItemDelegate()}{setItemDelegate()} function
    allows you to install a custom delegate for a standard view, and it is
    necessary to use this function when setting the delegate for a custom
    view.
 
    \section2 A simple delegate
 
    The delegate implemented here uses a \l QSpinBox to provide
    editing facilities, and is mainly intended for use with models
    that display integers. Although we set up a custom integer-based
    table model for this purpose, we could easily have used \l
    QStandardItemModel instead, since the custom delegate controls
    data entry. We construct a table view to display the contents of
    the model, and this will use the custom delegate for editing.
 
    \image spinboxdelegate-example.webp
           {Custom spin box delegate for editing}
 
    We subclass the delegate from \l QStyledItemDelegate because we do not want
    to write custom display functions. However, we must still provide
    functions to manage the editor widget:
 
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp declaration
    \codeline
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp constructor
 
    Note that no editor widgets are set up when the delegate is
    constructed. We only construct an editor widget when it is needed.
 
    \section3 Providing an editor
 
    In this example, when the table view needs to provide an editor, it
    asks the delegate to provide an editor widget that is appropriate
    for the item being modified. The
    \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::createEditor()}{createEditor()} function is
    supplied with everything that the delegate needs to be able to set up
    a suitable widget:
 
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp createEditor
 
    Note that we do not need to keep a pointer to the editor widget because
    the view takes responsibility for destroying it when it is no longer
    needed.
 
    We install the delegate's default event filter on the editor to ensure
    that it provides the standard editing shortcuts that users expect.
    Additional shortcuts can be added to the editor to allow more
    sophisticated behavior; these are discussed in the section on
    \l{#EditingHints}{Editing Hints}.
 
    The view ensures that the editor's data and geometry are set
    correctly by calling functions that we define later for these purposes.
    We can create different editors depending on the model index supplied
    by the view. For example, if we have a column of integers and a column
    of strings we could return either a \c QSpinBox or a \c QLineEdit,
    depending on which column is being edited.
 
    The delegate must provide a function to copy model data into the
    editor. In this example, we read the data stored in the
    \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{display role}, and set the value in the
    spin box accordingly.
 
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp setEditorData
 
    In this example, we know that the editor widget is a spin box, but we
    could have provided different editors for different types of data in
    the model, in which case we would need to cast the widget to the
    appropriate type before accessing its member functions.
 
    \section3 Submitting data to the model
 
    When the user has finished editing the value in the spin box, the view
    asks the delegate to store the edited value in the model by calling the
    \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::setModelData()}{setModelData()} function.
 
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp setModelData
 
    Since the view manages the editor widgets for the delegate, we only
    need to update the model with the contents of the editor supplied.
    In this case, we ensure that the spin box is up-to-date, and update
    the model with the value it contains using the index specified.
 
    The standard \l QStyledItemDelegate class informs the view when it has
    finished editing by emitting the
    \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::closeEditor()}{closeEditor()} signal.
    The view ensures that the editor widget is closed and destroyed. In
    this example, we only provide simple editing facilities, so we never
    need to emit this signal.
 
    All the operations on data are performed through the interface
    provided by \l QAbstractItemModel. This makes the delegate mostly
    independent from the type of data it manipulates, but some
    assumptions must be made in order to use certain types of
    editor widgets. In this example, we have assumed that the model
    always contains integer values, but we can still use this
    delegate with different kinds of models because \l{QVariant}
    provides sensible default values for unexpected data.
 
    \section3 Updating the editor's geometry
 
    It is the responsibility of the delegate to manage the editor's
    geometry. The geometry must be set when the editor is created, and
    when the item's size or position in the view is changed. Fortunately,
    the view provides all the necessary geometry information inside a
    \l{QStyleOptionViewItem}{view option} object.
 
    \snippet qitemdelegate/spinbox-delegate.cpp updateEditorGeometry
 
    In this case, we just use the geometry information provided by the
    view option in the item rectangle. A delegate that renders items with
    several elements would not use the item rectangle directly. It would
    position the editor in relation to the other elements in the item.
 
    \target EditingHints
    \section3 Editing hints
 
    After editing, delegates should provide hints to the other components
    about the result of the editing process, and provide hints that will
    assist any subsequent editing operations. This is achieved by
    emitting the \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::closeEditor()}{closeEditor()}
    signal with a suitable hint. This is taken care of by the default
    QStyledItemDelegate event filter which we installed on the spin box when
    it was constructed.
 
    The behavior of the spin box could be adjusted to make it more user
    friendly. In the default event filter supplied by QStyledItemDelegate, if
    the user hits \uicontrol Return to confirm their choice in the spin box,
    the delegate commits the value to the model and closes the spin box.
    We can change this behavior by installing our own event filter on the
    spin box, and provide editing hints that suit our needs; for example,
    we might emit \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::closeEditor()}{closeEditor()}
    with the \l{QAbstractItemDelegate::EndEditHint}{EditNextItem} hint to
    automatically start editing the next item in the view.
 
    Another approach that does not require the use of an event
    filter is to provide our own editor widget, perhaps subclassing
    QSpinBox for convenience. This alternative approach would give us
    more control over how the editor widget behaves at the cost of
    writing additional code. It is usually easier to install an event
    filter in the delegate if you need to customize the behavior of
    a standard Qt editor widget.
 
    Delegates do not have to emit these hints, but those that do not will
    be less integrated into applications, and will be less usable than
    those that emit hints to support common editing actions.
 
    \section1 Handling Selections in Item Views
 
    \section2 Concepts
 
    The selection model used in the item view classes provides a general
    description of selections based on the facilities of the model/view
    architecture. Although the standard classes for manipulating selections are
    sufficient for the item views provided, the selection model allows you to
    create specialized selection models to suit the requirements for your own
    item models and views.
 
    Information about the items selected in a view is stored in an instance of
    the \l QItemSelectionModel class. This maintains model indexes for items in
    a single model, and is independent of any views. Since there can be many
    views onto a model, it is possible to share selections between views,
    allowing applications to show multiple views in a consistent way.
 
    Selections are made up of \e{selection ranges}. These efficiently maintain
    information about large selections of items by recording only the starting
    and ending model indexes for each range of selected items. Non-contiguous
    selections of items are constructed by using more than one selection range
    to describe the selection.
 
    Selections are applied to a collection of model indexes held by a selection
    model. The most recent selection of items applied is known as the
    \e{current selection}. The effects of this selection can be modified even
    after its application through the use of certain types of selection
    commands. These are discussed later in this section.
 
    \section3 Current item and selected items
 
    In a view, there is always a current item and a selected item - two
    independent states. An item can be the current item and selected at the
    same time. The view is responsible for ensuring that there is always a
    current item as keyboard navigation, for example, requires a current item.
 
    The table below highlights the differences between current item and
    selected items.
 
    \table 70%
    \header
        \li  Current Item
        \li  Selected Items
 
    \row
        \li  There can only be one current item.
        \li  There can be multiple selected items.
    \row
        \li  The current item will be changed with key navigation or mouse
            button clicks.
        \li  The selected state of items is set or unset, depending on several
            pre-defined modes - e.g., single selection, multiple selection,
            etc. - when the user interacts with the items.
    \row
        \li  The current item will be edited if the edit key, \uicontrol F2, is
            pressed or the item is double-clicked (provided that editing is
            enabled).
        \li  The current item can be used together with an anchor to specify a
            range that should be selected or deselected (or a combination of
            the two).
    \row
        \li  The current item is indicated by the focus rectangle.
        \li  The selected items are indicated with the selection rectangle.
    \endtable
 
    When manipulating selections, it is often helpful to think of
    \l QItemSelectionModel as a record of the selection state of all the items
    in an item model. Once a selection model is set up, collections of items
    can be selected, deselected, or their selection states can be toggled
    without the need to know which items are already selected. The indexes of
    all selected items can be retrieved at any time, and other components can
    be informed of changes to the selection model via the signals and slots
    mechanism.
 
    \section2 Using a selection model
 
    The standard view classes provide default selection models that can
    be used in most applications. A selection model belonging to one view
    can be obtained using the view's
    \l{QAbstractItemView::selectionModel()}{selectionModel()} function,
    and shared between many views with
    \l{QAbstractItemView::setSelectionModel()}{setSelectionModel()},
    so the construction of new selection models is generally not required.
 
    A selection is created by specifying a model, and a pair of model
    indexes to a \l QItemSelection. This uses the indexes to refer to items
    in the given model, and interprets them as the top-left and bottom-right
    items in a block of selected items.
    To apply the selection to items in a model requires the selection to be
    submitted to a selection model; this can be achieved in a number of ways,
    each having a different effect on the selections already present in the
    selection model.
 
    \section3 Selecting items
 
    To demonstrate some of the principal features of selections, we construct
    an instance of a custom table model with 32 items in total, and open a
    table view onto its data:
 
    \snippet itemselection/main.cpp 0
 
    The table view's default selection model is retrieved for later use.
    We do not modify any items in the model, but instead select a few
    items that the view will display at the top-left of the table. To do
    this, we need to retrieve the model indexes corresponding to the
    top-left and bottom-right items in the region to be selected:
 
    \snippet itemselection/main.cpp 1
 
    To select these items in the model, and see the corresponding change
    in the table view, we need to construct a selection object then apply
    it to the selection model:
 
    \snippet itemselection/main.cpp 2
 
    The selection is applied to the selection model using a command
    defined by a combination of
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{selection flags}.
    In this case, the flags used cause the items recorded in the
    selection object to be included in the selection model, regardless
    of their previous state. The resulting selection is shown by the view.
 
    \image selected-items1.png
           {Selection model of a table model is highlighted blue}
 
    The selection of items can be modified using various operations that
    are defined by the selection flags. The selection that results from
    these operations may have a complex structure, but it is represented
    efficiently by the selection model. The use of different selection
    flags to manipulate the selected items is described when we examine
    how to update a selection.
 
    \section3 Reading the selection state
 
    The model indexes stored in the selection model can be read using
    the \l{QItemSelectionModel::selectedIndexes()}{selectedIndexes()}
    function. This returns an unsorted list of model indexes that we can
    iterate over as long as we know which model they are for:
 
    \snippet reading-selections/window.cpp 0
 
    The above code uses a range-based for-loop to iterate over,
    and modify, the items corresponding to the
    indexes returned by the selection model.
 
    The selection model emits signals to indicate changes in the
    selection. These notify other components about changes to both the
    selection as a whole and the currently focused item in the item
    model. We can connect the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::selectionChanged()}{selectionChanged()}
    signal to a slot, and examine the items in the model that are selected or
    deselected when the selection changes. The slot is called with two
    \l{QItemSelection} objects: one contains a list of indexes that
    correspond to newly selected items; the other contains indexes that
    correspond to newly deselected items.
 
    In the following code, we provide a slot that receives the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::selectionChanged()}{selectionChanged()}
    signal, fills in the selected items with
    a string, and clears the contents of the deselected items.
 
    \snippet updating-selections/window.cpp 0
    \snippet updating-selections/window.cpp 1
    \codeline
    \snippet updating-selections/window.cpp 2
 
    We can keep track of the currently focused item by connecting the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::currentChanged()}{currentChanged()} signal
    to a slot that is called with two model indexes. These correspond to
    the previously focused item, and the currently focused item.
 
    In the following code, we provide a slot that receives the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::currentChanged()}{currentChanged()} signal,
    and uses the information provided to update the status bar of a
    \l QMainWindow:
 
    \snippet updating-selections/window.cpp 3
 
    Monitoring selections made by the user is straightforward with these
    signals, but we can also update the selection model directly.
 
    \section3 Updating a selection
 
    Selection commands are provided by a combination of selection flags,
    defined by \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}.
    Each selection flag tells the selection model how to update its
    internal record of selected items when either of the
    \l{QItemSelection::select()}{select()} functions are called.
    The most commonly used flag is the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Select} flag
    which instructs the selection model to record the specified items as
    being selected. The
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Toggle} flag causes the
    selection model to invert the state of the specified items,
    selecting any deselected items given, and deselecting any currently
    selected items. The \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Deselect}
    flag deselects all the specified items.
 
    Individual items in the selection model are updated by creating a
    selection of items, and applying them to the selection model. In the
    following code, we apply a second selection of items to the table
    model shown above, using the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Toggle} command to invert the
    selection state of the items given.
 
    \snippet itemselection/main.cpp 3
 
    The results of this operation are displayed in the table view,
    providing a convenient way of visualizing what we have achieved:
 
    \image selected-items2.png {Updated selection model has inverted colors}
 
    By default, the selection commands only operate on the individual
    items specified by the model indexes. However, the flag used to
    describe the selection command can be combined with additional flags
    to change entire rows and columns. For example if you call
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::select()}{select()} with only one index, but
    with a command that is a combination of
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Select} and
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Rows}, the
    entire row containing the item referred to is selected.
    The following code demonstrates the use of the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Rows} and
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Columns} flags:
 
    \snippet itemselection/main.cpp 4
 
    Although only four indexes are supplied to the selection model, the
    use of the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Columns} and
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Rows} selection flags means
    that two columns and two rows are selected. The following image shows
    the result of these two selections:
 
    \image selected-items3.png
           {Updating whole columns or rows in the selection model}
 
    The commands performed on the example model have all involved
    accumulating a selection of items in the model. It is also possible
    to clear the selection, or to replace the current selection with
    a new one.
 
    To replace the current selection with a new selection, combine
    the other selection flags with the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Current} flag. A command using
    this flag instructs the selection model to replace its current collection
    of model indexes with those specified in a call to
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::select()}{select()}.
    To clear all selections before you start adding new ones,
    combine the other selection flags with the
    \l{QItemSelectionModel::SelectionFlag}{Clear} flag. This
    has the effect of resetting the selection model's collection of model
    indexes.
 
    \section3 Selecting all items in a model
 
    To select all items in a model, it is necessary to create a
    selection for each level of the model that covers all items in that
    level. We do this by retrieving the indexes corresponding to the
    top-left and bottom-right items with a given parent index:
 
    \snippet reading-selections/window.cpp 2
 
    A selection is constructed with these indexes and the model. The
    corresponding items are then selected in the selection model:
 
    \snippet reading-selections/window.cpp 3
 
    This needs to be performed for all levels in the model.
    For top-level items, we would define the parent index in the usual way:
 
    \snippet reading-selections/window.cpp 1
 
    For hierarchical models, the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::hasChildren()}{hasChildren()} function is used to
    determine whether any given item is the parent of another level of
    items.
 
    \section1 Creating New Models
 
    The separation of functionality between the model/view components allows
    models to be created that can take advantage of existing views. This
    approach lets us present data from a variety of sources using standard
    graphical user interface components, such as QListView, QTableView, and
    QTreeView.
 
    The QAbstractItemModel class provides an interface that is flexible
    enough to support data sources that arrange information in hierarchical
    structures, allowing for the possibility that data will be inserted,
    removed, modified, or sorted in some way. It also provides support for
    drag and drop operations.
 
    The QAbstractListModel and QAbstractTableModel classes provide support
    for interfaces to simpler non-hierarchical data structures, and are
    easier to use as a starting point for simple list and table models.
 
    In this section, we create a simple read-only model to explore
    the basic principles of the model/view architecture. Later in this
    section, we adapt this simple model so that items can be modified
    by the user.
 
    For an example of a more complex model, see the
    \l{itemviews/simpletreemodel}{Simple Tree Model} example.
 
    The requirements of QAbstractItemModel subclasses is described in more
    detail in the \l{Model Subclassing Reference} document.
 
    \section2 Designing a model
 
    When creating a new model for an existing data structure, it is
    important to consider which type of model should be used to
    provide an interface onto the data. If the data structure can be
    represented as a list or table of items, you can subclass
    QAbstractListModel or QAbstractTableModel since these classes
    provide suitable default implementations for many functions.
 
    However, if the underlying data structure can only be represented
    by a hierarchical tree structure, it is necessary to subclass
    QAbstractItemModel. This approach is taken in the
    \l{itemviews/simpletreemodel}{Simple Tree Model} example.
 
    In this section, we implement a simple model based on a list of
    strings, so the QAbstractListModel provides an ideal base class on
    which to build.
 
    Whatever form the underlying data structure takes, it is
    usually a good idea to supplement the standard QAbstractItemModel API
    in specialized models with one that allows more natural access to the
    underlying data structure. This makes it easier to populate the model
    with data, yet still enables other general model/view components to
    interact with it using the standard API. The model described below
    provides a custom constructor for just this purpose.
 
    \section2 A read-only example model
 
    The model implemented here is a simple, non-hierarchical, read-only data
    model based on the standard QStringListModel class. It has a \l QStringList
    as its internal data source, and implements only what is needed to make a
    functioning model. To make the implementation easier, we subclass
    \l QAbstractListModel because it defines sensible default behavior for list
    models, and it exposes a simpler interface than the \l QAbstractItemModel
    class.
 
    When implementing a model it is important to remember that
    \l QAbstractItemModel does not store any data itself, it merely
    presents an interface that the views use to access the data.
    For a minimal read-only model it is only necessary to implement a few
    functions as there are default implementations for most of the
    interface. The class declaration is as follows:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 0
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 1
    \codeline
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 5
 
    Apart from the model's constructor, we only need to implement two
    functions: \l{QAbstractItemModel::rowCount()}{rowCount()} returns the
    number of rows in the model and \l{QAbstractItemModel::data()}{data()}
    returns an item of data corresponding to a specified model index.
 
    Well behaved models also implement
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerData()}{headerData()} to give tree and
    table views something to display in their headers.
 
    Note that this is a non-hierarchical model, so we don't have to worry
    about the parent-child relationships. If our model was hierarchical, we
    would also have to implement the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::index()}{index()} and
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::parent()}{parent()} functions.
 
    The list of strings is stored internally in the \c stringList private
    member variable.
 
    \section3 Dimensions of the model
 
    We want the number of rows in the model to be the same as the number of
    strings in the string list. We implement the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::rowCount()}{rowCount()} function with this in
    mind:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 0
 
    Since the model is non-hierarchical, we can safely ignore the model index
    corresponding to the parent item. By default, models derived from
    QAbstractListModel only contain one column, so we do not need to
    reimplement the \l{QAbstractItemModel::columnCount()}{columnCount()}
    function.
 
    \section3 Model headers and data
 
    For items in the view, we want to return the strings in the string list.
    The \l{QAbstractItemModel::data()}{data()} function is responsible for
    returning the item of data that corresponds to the index argument:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 1-data-read-only
 
    We only return a valid QVariant if the model index supplied is valid,
    the row number is within the range of items in the string list, and the
    requested role is one that we support.
 
    Some views, such as QTreeView and QTableView, are able to display headers
    along with the item data. If our model is displayed in a view with headers,
    we want the headers to show the row and column numbers. We can provide
    information about the headers by subclassing the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerData()}{headerData()} function:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 2
 
    Again, we return a valid QVariant only if the role is one that we support.
    The orientation of the header is also taken into account when deciding the
    exact data to return.
 
    Not all views display headers with the item data, and those that do may
    be configured to hide them. Nonetheless, it is recommended that you
    implement the \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerData()}{headerData()} function
    to provide relevant information about the data provided by the model.
 
    An item can have several roles, giving out different data depending on the
    role specified. The items in our model only have one role,
    \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{DisplayRole}, so we return the data
    for items irrespective of the role specified.
    However, we could reuse the data we provide for the
    \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{DisplayRole} in
    other roles, such as the
    \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{ToolTipRole} that views can use to
    display information about items in a tooltip.
 
    \section2 An editable model
 
    The read-only model shows how simple choices could be presented to the
    user but, for many applications, an editable list model is much more
    useful. We can modify the read-only model to make the items editable
    by changing the data() function we implemented for read-only, and
    by implementing two extra functions:
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::flags()}{flags()} and
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::setData()}{setData()}.
    The following function declarations are added to the class definition:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 2
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 3
 
    \section3 Making the model editable
 
    A delegate checks whether an item is editable before creating an
    editor. The model must let the delegate know that its items are
    editable. We do this by returning the correct flags for each item in
    the model; in this case, we enable all items and make them both
    selectable and editable:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 3
 
    Note that we do not have to know how the delegate performs the actual
    editing process. We only have to provide a way for the delegate to set the
    data in the model. This is achieved through the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::setData()}{setData()} function:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 4
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 5
 
    In this model, the item in the string list that corresponds to the
    model index is replaced by the value provided. However, before we
    can modify the string list, we must make sure that the index is
    valid, the item is of the correct type, and that the role is
    supported. By convention, we insist that the role is the
    \l{Qt::ItemDataRole}{EditRole} since this is the role used by the
    standard item delegate. For boolean values, however, you can use
    Qt::CheckStateRole and set the Qt::ItemIsUserCheckable flag; a
    checkbox is then used for editing the value. The underlying
    data in this model is the same for all roles, so this detail just
    makes it easier to integrate the model with standard components.
 
    When the data has been set, the model must let the views know that some
    data has changed. This is done by emitting the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::dataChanged()}{dataChanged()} signal. Since only
    one item of data has changed, the range of items specified in the signal
    is limited to just one model index.
 
    Also the data() function needs to be changed to add the Qt::EditRole test:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 1
 
    \section3 Inserting and removing rows
 
    It is possible to change the number of rows and columns in a model. In the
    string list model it only makes sense to change the number of rows, so we
    only reimplement the functions for inserting and removing rows. These are
    declared in the class definition:
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.h 4
 
    Since rows in this model correspond to strings in a list, the
    \c insertRows() function inserts a number of empty strings into the string
    list before the specified position. The number of strings inserted is
    equivalent to the number of rows specified.
 
    The parent index is normally used to determine where in the model the
    rows should be added. In this case, we only have a single top-level list
    of strings, so we just insert empty strings into that list.
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 6
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 7
 
    The model first calls the
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginInsertRows()}{beginInsertRows()} function to
    inform other components that the number of rows is about to change. The
    function specifies the row numbers of the first and last new rows to be
    inserted, and the model index for their parent item. After changing the
    string list, it calls
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::endInsertRows()}{endInsertRows()} to complete the
    operation and inform other components that the dimensions of the model
    have changed, returning true to indicate success.
 
    The function to remove rows from the model is also simple to write.
    The rows to be removed from the model are specified by the position and
    the number of rows given.
    We ignore the parent index to simplify our implementation, and just
    remove the corresponding items from the string list.
 
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 8
    \snippet stringlistmodel/model.cpp 9
 
    The \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginRemoveRows()}{beginRemoveRows()} function
    is always called before any underlying data is removed, and specifies the
    first and last rows to be removed. This allows other components to access
    the data before it becomes unavailable.
    After the rows have been removed, the model emits
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::endRemoveRows()}{endRemoveRows()} to finish the
    operation and let other components know that the dimensions of the model
    have changed.
 
    \section2 Next steps
 
    We can display the data provided by this model, or any other model, using
    the \l QListView class to present the model's items in the form of a vertical
    list.
    For the string list model, this view also provides a default editor so that
    the items can be manipulated. We examine the possibilities made available by
    the standard view classes in \l{View Classes}.
 
    The \l{Model Subclassing Reference} document discusses the requirements of
    QAbstractItemModel subclasses in more detail, and provides a guide to the
    virtual functions that must be implemented to enable various features in
    different types of models.
 
    \section1 Item View Convenience Classes
 
    The item-based widgets have names which reflect their uses:
    \c QListWidget provides a list of items, \c QTreeWidget displays a
    multi-level tree structure, and \c QTableWidget provides a table of cell
    items. Each class inherits the behavior of the \c QAbstractItemView
    class which implements common behavior for item selection and header
    management.
 
    \section2 List widgets
 
    Single level lists of items are typically displayed using a \c QListWidget
    and a number of \c{QListWidgetItem}s. A list widget is constructed in the
    same way as any other widget:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 0
 
    List items can be added directly to the list widget when they are
    constructed:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 3
 
    They can also be constructed without a parent list widget and added to
    a list at some later time:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 6
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 7
 
    Each item in a list can display a text label and an icon. The colors
    and font used to render the text can be changed to provide a customized
    appearance for items. Tooltips, status tips, and "What's
    This?" help are all easily configured to ensure that the list is properly
    integrated into the application.
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 8
 
    By default, items in a list are presented in the order of their creation.
    Lists of items can be sorted according to the criteria given in
    \l{Qt::SortOrder} to produce a list of items that is sorted in forward or
    reverse alphabetical order:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 4
    \snippet qlistwidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 5
 
    \section2 Tree widgets
 
    Trees or hierarchical lists of items are provided by the \c QTreeWidget
    and \c QTreeWidgetItem classes. Each item in the tree widget can have
    child items of its own, and can display a number of columns of
    information. Tree widgets are created just like any other widget:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 0
 
    Before items can be added to the tree widget, the number of columns must
    be set. For example, we could define two columns, and create a header
    to provide labels at the top of each column:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 1
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 2
 
    The easiest way to set up the labels for each section is to supply a string
    list. For more sophisticated headers, you can construct a tree item,
    decorate it as you wish, and use that as the tree widget's header.
 
    Top-level items in the tree widget are constructed with the tree widget as
    their parent widget. They can be inserted in an arbitrary order, or you
    can ensure that they are listed in a particular order by specifying the
    previous item when constructing each item:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 3
    \codeline
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 4
 
    Tree widgets deal with top-level items slightly differently to other
    items from deeper within the tree. Items can be removed from the top
    level of the tree by calling the tree widget's
    \l{QTreeWidget::takeTopLevelItem()}{takeTopLevelItem()} function, but
    items from lower levels are removed by calling their parent item's
    \l{QTreeWidgetItem::takeChild()}{takeChild()} function.
    Items are inserted in the top level of the tree with the
    \l{QTreeWidget::insertTopLevelItem()}{insertTopLevelItem()} function.
    At lower levels in the tree, the parent item's
    \l{QTreeWidgetItem::insertChild()}{insertChild()} function is used.
 
    It is easy to move items around between the top level and lower levels
    in the tree. We just need to check whether the items are top-level items
    or not, and this information is supplied by each item's \c parent()
    function. For example, we can remove the current item in the tree widget
    regardless of its location:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 10
 
    Inserting the item somewhere else in the tree widget follows the same
    pattern:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 8
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 9
 
    \section2 Table widgets
 
    Tables of items similar to those found in spreadsheet applications
    are constructed with the \c QTableWidget and \c QTableWidgetItem. These
    provide a scrolling table widget with headers and items to use within it.
 
    Tables can be created with a set number of rows and columns, or these
    can be added to an unsized table as they are needed.
 
    \snippet include/mainwindow.h 0
    \snippet qtablewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 0
 
    Items are constructed outside the table before being added to the table
    at the required location:
 
    \snippet qtablewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 3
 
    Horizontal and vertical headers can be added to the table by constructing
    items outside the table and using them as headers:
 
    \snippet qtablewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 1
 
    Note that the rows and columns in the table begin at zero.
 
    \section2 Common features
 
    There are a number of item-based features common to each of the
    convenience classes that are available through the same interfaces
    in each class. We present these in the following sections with some
    examples for different widgets.
    Look at the list of \l{Model/View Classes} for each of the widgets
    for more details about the use of each function used.
 
    \section3 Hidden items
 
    It is sometimes useful to be able to hide items in an item view widget
    rather than remove them. Items for all of the above widgets can be
    hidden and later shown again. You can determine whether an item is hidden
    by calling the isItemHidden() function, and items can be hidden with
    \c setItemHidden().
 
    Since this operation is item-based, the same function is available for
    all three convenience classes.
 
    \section3 Selections
 
    The way items are selected is controlled by the widget's selection mode
    (\l{QAbstractItemView::SelectionMode}).
    This property controls whether the user can select one or many items and,
    in many-item selections, whether the selection must be a continuous range
    of items. The selection mode works in the same way for all of the
    above widgets.
 
    \table 70%
    \row
    \li \image selection-single.png {Selecting a single item}
    \li \b{Single item selections:}
    Where the user needs to choose a single item from a widget, the
    default \c SingleSelection mode is most suitable. In this mode, the
    current item and the selected item are the same.
 
    \row
    \li \image selection-multi.png {Selecting multiple items}
    \li \b{Multi-item selections:}
    In this mode, the user can toggle the selection state of any item in the
    widget without changing the existing selection, much like the way
    non-exclusive checkboxes can be toggled independently.
 
    \row
    \li \image selection-extended.png {Selecting extended and adjacent items}
    \li \b{Extended selections:}
    Widgets that often require many adjacent items to be selected, such
    as those found in spreadsheets, require the \c ExtendedSelection mode.
    In this mode, continuous ranges of items in the widget can be selected
    with both the mouse and the keyboard.
    Complex selections, involving many items that are not adjacent to other
    selected items in the widget, can also be created if modifier keys are
    used.
 
    If the user selects an item without using a modifier key, the existing
    selection is cleared.
    \endtable
 
    The selected items in a widget are read using the \c selectedItems()
    function, providing a list of relevant items that can be iterated over.
    For example, we can find the sum of all the numeric values within a
    list of selected items with the following code:
 
    \snippet qtablewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 4
 
    Note that for the single selection mode, the current item will be in
    the selection. In the multi-selection and extended selection modes, the
    current item may not lie within the selection, depending on the way the
    user formed the selection.
 
    \section3 Searching
 
    It is often useful to be able to find items within an item view widget,
    either as a developer or as a service to present to users. All three
    item view convenience classes provide a common \c findItems() function
    to make this as consistent and simple as possible.
 
    Items are searched for by the text that they contain according to
    criteria specified by a selection of values from Qt::MatchFlags.
    We can obtain a list of matching items with the \c findItems()
    function:
 
    \snippet qtreewidget-using/mainwindow.cpp 7
 
    The above code causes items in a tree widget to be selected if they
    contain the text given in the search string. This pattern can also be
    used in the list and table widgets.
 
    \section1 Using Drag and Drop with Item Views
 
    Qt's drag and drop infrastructure is fully supported by the model/view framework.
    Items in lists, tables, and trees can be dragged within the views, and data can be
    imported and exported as MIME-encoded data.
 
    The standard views automatically support internal drag and drop, where items are
    moved around to change the order in which they are displayed. By default, drag and
    drop is not enabled for these views because they are configured for the simplest,
    most common uses. To allow items to be dragged around, certain properties of the
    view need to be enabled, and the items themselves must also allow dragging to occur.
 
    The requirements for a model that only allows items to be exported from a
    view, and which does not allow data to be dropped into it, are fewer than
    those for a fully-enabled drag and drop model.
 
    See also the \l{Model Subclassing Reference} for more information about
    enabling drag and drop support in new models.
 
    \section2 Using convenience views
 
    Each of the types of item used with QListWidget, QTableWidget, and QTreeWidget
    is configured to use a different set of flags by default. For example, each
    QListWidgetItem or QTreeWidgetItem is initially enabled, checkable, selectable,
    and can be used as the source of a drag and drop operation; each QTableWidgetItem
    can also be edited and used as the target of a drag and drop operation.
 
    Although all of the standard items have one or both flags set for drag and drop,
    you generally need to set various properties in the view itself to take advantage
    of the built-in support for drag and drop:
 
    \list
    \li To enable item dragging, set the view's
       \l{QAbstractItemView::dragEnabled}{dragEnabled} property to \c true.
    \li To allow the user to drop either internal or external items within the view,
       set the view's \l{QAbstractScrollArea::}{viewport()}'s
       \l{QWidget::acceptDrops}{acceptDrops} property to \c true.
    \li To show the user where the item currently being dragged will be placed if
       dropped, set the view's \l{QAbstractItemView::showDropIndicator}{showDropIndicator}
       property. This provides the user with continuously updating information about
       item placement within the view.
    \endlist
 
    For example, we can enable drag and drop in a list widget with the following lines
    of code:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-dnd/mainwindow.cpp 0
 
    The result is a list widget which allows the items to be copied
    around within the view, and even lets the user drag items between
    views containing the same type of data. In both situations, the
    items are copied rather than moved.
 
    To enable the user to move the items around within the view, we
    must set the list widget's \l {QAbstractItemView::}{dragDropMode}:
 
    \snippet qlistwidget-dnd/mainwindow.cpp 1
 
    \section2 Using model/view classes
 
    Setting up a view for drag and drop follows the same pattern used with the
    convenience views. For example, a QListView can be set up in the same way as a
    QListWidget:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/mainwindow.cpp 0
 
    Since access to the data displayed by the view is controlled by a model, the
    model used also has to provide support for drag and drop operations. The
    actions supported by a model can be specified by reimplementing the
    QAbstractItemModel::supportedDropActions() function. For example, copy and
    move operations are enabled with the following code:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 10
 
    Although any combination of values from Qt::DropActions can be given, the
    model needs to be written to support them. For example, to allow Qt::MoveAction
    to be used properly with a list model, the model must provide an implementation
    of QAbstractItemModel::removeRows(), either directly or by inheriting the
    implementation from its base class.
 
    \section3 Enabling drag and drop for items
 
    Models indicate to views which items can be dragged, and which will accept drops,
    by reimplementing the QAbstractItemModel::flags() function to provide suitable
    flags.
 
    For example, a model which provides a simple list based on QAbstractListModel
    can enable drag and drop for each of the items by ensuring that the flags
    returned contain the \l Qt::ItemIsDragEnabled and \l Qt::ItemIsDropEnabled
    values:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 7
 
    Note that items can be dropped into the top level of the model, but dragging is
    only enabled for valid items.
 
    In the above code, since the model is derived from QStringListModel, we
    obtain a default set of flags by calling its implementation of the flags()
    function.
 
    \section3 Encoding exported data
 
    When items of data are exported from a model in a drag and drop operation, they
    are encoded into an appropriate format corresponding to one or more MIME types.
    Models declare the MIME types that they can use to supply items by reimplementing
    the QAbstractItemModel::mimeTypes() function, returning a list of standard MIME
    types.
 
    For example, a model that only provides plain text would provide the following
    implementation:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 9
 
    The model must also provide code to encode data in the advertised format. This
    is achieved by reimplementing the QAbstractItemModel::mimeData() function to
    provide a QMimeData object, just as in any other drag and drop operation.
 
    The following code shows how each item of data, corresponding to a given list of
    indexes, is encoded as plain text and stored in a QMimeData object.
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 8
 
    Since a list of model indexes is supplied to the function, this approach is general
    enough to be used in both hierarchical and non-heirarchical models.
 
    Note that custom datatypes must be declared as \l{QMetaObject}{meta objects}
    and that stream operators must be implemented for them. See the QMetaObject
    class description for details.
 
    \section3 Inserting dropped data into a model
 
    The way that any given model handles dropped data depends on both its type
    (list, table, or tree) and the way its contents is likely to be presented to
    the user. Generally, the approach taken to accommodate dropped data should
    be the one that most suits the model's underlying data store.
 
    Different types of model tend to handle dropped data in different ways. List
    and table models only provide a flat structure in which items of data are
    stored. As a result, they may insert new rows (and columns) when data is
    dropped on an existing item in a view, or they may overwrite the item's
    contents in the model using some of the data supplied. Tree models are
    often able to add child items containing new data to their underlying data
    stores, and will therefore behave more predictably as far as the user
    is concerned.
 
    Dropped data is handled by a model's reimplementation of
    QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData(). For example, a model that handles a
    simple list of strings can provide an implementation that handles data
    dropped onto existing items separately to data dropped into the top level
    of the model (i.e., onto an invalid item).
 
    Models can forbid dropping on certain items, or depending on the dropped data,
    by reimplementing QAbstractItemModel::canDropMimeData().
 
    The model first has to make sure that the operation should be acted on,
    the data supplied is in a format that can be used, and that its destination
    within the model is valid:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 0
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 1
 
    A simple one column string list model can indicate failure if the data
    supplied is not plain text, or if the column number given for the drop
    is invalid.
 
    The data to be inserted into the model is treated differently depending on
    whether it is dropped onto an existing item or not. In this simple example,
    we want to allow drops between existing items, before the first item in the
    list, and after the last item.
 
    When a drop occurs, the model index corresponding to the parent item will
    either be valid, indicating that the drop occurred on an item, or it will
    be invalid, indicating that the drop occurred somewhere in the view that
    corresponds to top level of the model.
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 2
 
    We initially examine the row number supplied to see if we can use it
    to insert items into the model, regardless of whether the parent index is
    valid or not.
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 3
 
    If the parent model index is valid, the drop occurred on an item. In this
    simple list model, we find out the row number of the item and use that
    value to insert dropped items into the top level of the model.
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 4
 
    When a drop occurs elsewhere in the view, and the row number is unusable,
    we append items to the top level of the model.
 
    In hierarchical models, when a drop occurs on an item, it would be better to
    insert new items into the model as children of that item. In the simple
    example shown here, the model only has one level, so this approach is not
    appropriate.
 
    \section3 Decoding imported data
 
    Each implementation of \l{QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData()}{dropMimeData()} must
    also decode the data and insert it into the model's underlying data structure.
 
    For a simple string list model, the encoded items can be decoded and streamed
    into a QStringList:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 5
 
    The strings can then be inserted into the underlying data store. For consistency,
    this can be done through the model's own interface:
 
    \snippet qlistview-dnd/model.cpp 6
 
    Note that the model will typically need to provide implementations of the
    QAbstractItemModel::insertRows() and QAbstractItemModel::setData() functions.
 
    \section1 Proxy Models
 
    In the model/view framework, items of data supplied by a single model can be shared
    by any number of views, and each of these can possibly represent the same information
    in completely different ways.
    Custom views and delegates are effective ways to provide radically different
    representations of the same data. However, applications often need to provide
    conventional views onto processed versions of the same data, such as differently-sorted
    views onto a list of items.
 
    Although it seems appropriate to perform sorting and filtering operations as internal
    functions of views, this approach does not allow multiple views to share the results
    of such potentially costly operations. The alternative approach, involving sorting
    within the model itself, leads to the similar problem where each view has to display
    items of data that are organized according to the most recent processing operation.
 
    To solve this problem, the model/view framework uses proxy models to manage the
    information supplied between individual models and views. Proxy models are components
    that behave like ordinary models from the perspective of a view, and access data from
    source models on behalf of that view. The signals and slots used by the model/view
    framework ensure that each view is updated appropriately no matter how many proxy models
    are placed between itself and the source model.
 
    \section2 Using proxy models
 
    Proxy models can be inserted between an existing model and any number of views.
    Qt is supplied with a standard proxy model, QSortFilterProxyModel, that is usually
    instantiated and used directly, but can also be subclassed to provide custom filtering
    and sorting behavior. The QSortFilterProxyModel class can be used in the following way:
 
    \snippet qsortfilterproxymodel/main.cpp 0
    \codeline
    \snippet qsortfilterproxymodel/main.cpp 1
 
    Since proxy models inherit from QAbstractItemModel, they can be connected to
    any kind of view, and can be shared between views. They can also be used to
    process the information obtained from other proxy models in a pipeline arrangement.
 
    The QSortFilterProxyModel class is designed to be instantiated and used directly
    in applications. More specialized proxy models can be created by subclassing this
    classes and implementing the required comparison operations.
 
    \section2 Customizing proxy models
 
    Generally, the type of processing used in a proxy model involves mapping each item of
    data from its original location in the source model to either a different location in
    the proxy model. In some models, some items may have no corresponding location in the
    proxy model; these models are \e filtering proxy models. Views access items using
    model indexes provided by the proxy model, and these contain no information about the
    source model or the locations of the original items in that model.
 
    QSortFilterProxyModel enables data from a source model to be filtered before
    being supplied to views, and also allows the contents of a source model to
    be supplied to views as pre-sorted data.
 
    \section3 Custom filtering models
 
    The QSortFilterProxyModel class provides a filtering model that is fairly versatile,
    and which can be used in a variety of common situations. For advanced users,
    QSortFilterProxyModel can be subclassed, providing a mechanism that enables custom
    filters to be implemented.
 
    Subclasses of QSortFilterProxyModel can reimplement two virtual functions that are
    called whenever a model index from the proxy model is requested or used:
 
    \list
    \li \l{QSortFilterProxyModel::filterAcceptsColumn()}{filterAcceptsColumn()} is used to
       filter specific columns from part of the source model.
    \li \l{QSortFilterProxyModel::filterAcceptsRow()}{filterAcceptsRow()} is used to filter
       specific rows from part of the source model.
    \endlist
 
    The default implementations of the above functions in QSortFilterProxyModel
    return true to ensure that all items are passed through to views; reimplementations
    of these functions should return false to filter out individual rows and columns.
 
    \section3 Custom sorting models
 
    QSortFilterProxyModel instances use std::stable_sort() function to set up
    mappings between items in the source model and those in the proxy model, allowing a
    sorted hierarchy of items to be exposed to views without modifying the structure of the
    source model. To provide custom sorting behavior, reimplement the
    \l{QSortFilterProxyModel::lessThan()}{lessThan()} function to perform custom
    comparisons.
 
    \section1 Model Subclassing Reference
 
    Model subclasses need to provide implementations of many of the virtual functions
    defined in the QAbstractItemModel base class. The number of these functions that need
    to be implemented depends on the type of model - whether it supplies views with
    a simple list, a table, or a complex hierarchy of items. Models that inherit from
    QAbstractListModel and QAbstractTableModel can take advantage of the default
    implementations of functions provided by those classes. Models that expose items
    of data in tree-like structures must provide implementations for many of the
    virtual functions in QAbstractItemModel.
 
    The functions that need to be implemented in a model subclass can be divided into three
    groups:
 
    \list
    \li \b{Item data handling:} All models need to implement functions to enable views and
       delegates to query the dimensions of the model, examine items, and retrieve data.
    \li \b{Navigation and index creation:} Hierarchical models need to provide functions
       that views can call to navigate the tree-like structures they expose, and obtain
       model indexes for items.
    \li \b{Drag and drop support and MIME type handling:} Models inherit functions that
       control the way that internal and external drag and drop operations are performed.
       These functions allow items of data to be described in terms of MIME types that
       other components and applications can understand.
    \endlist
 
    \section2 Item data handling
 
    Models can provide varying levels of access to the data they provide: They can be
    simple read-only components, some models may support resizing operations, and
    others may allow items to be edited.
 
    \section2 Read-Only access
 
    To provide read-only access to data provided by a model, the following functions
    \e{must} be implemented in the model's subclass:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::flags()}{flags()}
         \li Used by other components to obtain information about each item provided by
            the model. In many models, the combination of flags should include
            Qt::ItemIsEnabled and Qt::ItemIsSelectable.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::data()}{data()}
         \li Used to supply item data to views and delegates. Generally, models only
            need to supply data for Qt::DisplayRole and any application-specific user
            roles, but it is also good practice to provide data for Qt::ToolTipRole,
            Qt::AccessibleTextRole, and Qt::AccessibleDescriptionRole.
            See the Qt::ItemDataRole enum documentation for information about the types
            associated with each role.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerData()}{headerData()}
         \li Provides views with information to show in their headers. The information is
            only retrieved by views that can display header information.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::rowCount()}{rowCount()}
         \li Provides the number of rows of data exposed by the model.
    \endtable
 
    These four functions must be implemented in all types of model, including list models
    (QAbstractListModel subclasses) and table models (QAbstractTableModel subclasses).
 
    Additionally, the following functions \e{must} be implemented in direct subclasses
    of QAbstractTableModel and QAbstractItemModel:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::columnCount()}{columnCount()}
         \li Provides the number of columns of data exposed by the model. List models do not
            provide this function because it is already implemented in QAbstractListModel.
    \endtable
 
    \section3 Editable items
 
    Editable models allow items of data to be modified, and may also provide
    functions to allow rows and columns to be inserted and removed. To enable
    editing, the following functions must be implemented correctly:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::flags()}{flags()}
         \li Must return an appropriate combination of flags for each item. In particular,
            the value returned by this function must include \l{Qt::ItemIsEditable} in
            addition to the values applied to items in a read-only model.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::setData()}{setData()}
         \li Used to modify the item of data associated with a specified model index.
            To be able to accept user input, provided by user interface elements, this
            function must handle data associated with Qt::EditRole.
            The implementation may also accept data associated with many different kinds
            of roles specified by Qt::ItemDataRole. After changing the item of data,
            models must emit the \l{QAbstractItemModel::dataChanged()}{dataChanged()}
            signal to inform other components of the change.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::setHeaderData()}{setHeaderData()}
         \li Used to modify horizontal and vertical header information. After changing
            the item of data, models must emit the
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::headerDataChanged()}{headerDataChanged()}
            signal to inform other components of the change.
    \endtable
 
    \section3 Resizable models
 
    All types of model can support the insertion and removal of rows. Table models
    and hierarchical models can also support the insertion and removal of columns.
    It is important to notify other components about changes to the model's dimensions
    both \e before and \e after they occur. As a result, the following functions
    can be implemented to allow the model to be resized, but implementations must
    ensure that the appropriate functions are called to notify attached views and
    delegates:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertRows()}{insertRows()}
         \li Used to add new rows and items of data to all types of model.
            Implementations must call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginInsertRows()}{beginInsertRows()} \e before
            inserting new rows into any underlying data structures, and call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::endInsertRows()}{endInsertRows()}
            \e{immediately afterwards}.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::removeRows()}{removeRows()}
         \li Used to remove rows and the items of data they contain from all types of model.
            Implementations must call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginRemoveRows()}{beginRemoveRows()}
            \e before rows are removed from any underlying data structures, and call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::endRemoveRows()}{endRemoveRows()}
            \e{immediately afterwards}.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertColumns()}{insertColumns()}
         \li Used to add new columns and items of data to table models and hierarchical models.
            Implementations must call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginInsertColumns()}{beginInsertColumns()} \e before
            inserting new columns into any underlying data structures, and call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::endInsertColumns()}{endInsertColumns()}
            \e{immediately afterwards}.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::removeColumns()}{removeColumns()}
         \li Used to remove columns and the items of data they contain from table models and
            hierarchical models.
            Implementations must call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::beginRemoveColumns()}{beginRemoveColumns()}
            \e before columns are removed from any underlying data structures, and call
            \l{QAbstractItemModel::endRemoveColumns()}{endRemoveColumns()}
            \e{immediately afterwards}.
    \endtable
 
    Generally, these functions should return true if the operation was successful.
    However, there may be cases where the operation only partly succeeded; for example,
    if less than the specified number of rows could be inserted. In such cases, the
    model should return false to indicate failure to enable any attached components to
    handle the situation.
 
    The signals emitted by the functions called in implementations of the resizing
    API give attached components the chance to take action before any data becomes
    unavailable. The encapsulation of insert and remove operations with begin and end
    functions also enable the model to manage
    \l{QPersistentModelIndex}{persistent model indexes} correctly.
 
    Normally, the begin and end functions are capable of informing other components
    about changes to the model's underlying structure. For more complex changes to the
    model's structure, perhaps involving internal reorganization, sorting of data or
    any other structural change, it is necessary to perform the following sequence:
 
    \list
    \li Emit the \l{QAbstractItemModel::layoutAboutToBeChanged()}{layoutAboutToBeChanged()} signal
    \li Update internal data which represents the structure of the model.
    \li Update persistent indexes using \l{QAbstractItemModel::changePersistentIndexList()}{changePersistentIndexList()}
    \li Emit the \l{QAbstractItemModel::layoutChanged()}{layoutChanged()} signal.
    \endlist
 
    This sequence can be used for any structural update in lieu of the more
    high-level and convenient protected methods. For example, if a model of
    two million rows needs to have all odd numbered rows removed, that
    is 1 million discountiguous ranges of 1 element each. It would be
    possible to use beginRemoveRows and endRemoveRows 1 million times, but
    that would obviously be inefficient. Instead, this can be signalled as a
    single layout change which updates all necessary persistent indexes at
    once.
 
    \section3 Lazy population of model data
 
    Lazy population of model data effectively allows requests for information
    about the model to be deferred until it is actually needed by views.
 
    Some models need to obtain data from remote sources, or must perform
    time-consuming operations to obtain information about the way the
    data is organized. Since views generally request as much information
    as possible in order to accurately display model data, it can be useful
    to restrict the amount of information returned to them to reduce
    unnecessary follow-up requests for data.
 
    In hierarchical models where finding the number of children of a given
    item is an expensive operation, it is useful to ensure that the model's
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{rowCount()} implementation is only called when
    necessary. In such cases, the \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{hasChildren()}
    function can be reimplemented to provide an inexpensive way for views to
    check for the presence of children and, in the case of QTreeView, draw
    the appropriate decoration for their parent item.
 
    Whether the reimplementation of \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{hasChildren()}
    returns \c true or \c false, it may not be necessary for the view to call
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{rowCount()} to find out how many children are
    present. For example, QTreeView does not need to know how many children
    there are if the parent item has not been expanded to show them.
 
    If it is known that many items will have children, reimplementing
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{hasChildren()} to unconditionally return \c true
    is sometimes a useful approach to take. This ensures that each item can
    be later examined for children while making initial population of model
    data as fast as possible. The only disadvantage is that items without
    children may be displayed incorrectly in some views until the user
    attempts to view the non-existent child items.
 
    \section2 Navigation and model index creation
 
    Hierarchical models need to provide functions that views can call to navigate the
    tree-like structures they expose, and obtain model indexes for items.
 
    \section3 Parents and children
 
    Since the structure exposed to views is determined by the underlying data
    structure, it is up to each model subclass to create its own model indexes
    by providing implementations of the following functions:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::index()}{index()}
         \li Given a model index for a parent item, this function allows views and delegates
            to access children of that item. If no valid child item - corresponding to the
            specified row, column, and parent model index, can be found, the function
            must return QModelIndex(), which is an invalid model index.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::parent()}{parent()}
         \li Provides a model index corresponding to the parent of any given child item.
            If the model index specified corresponds to a top-level item in the model, or if
            there is no valid parent item in the model, the function must return
            an invalid model index, created with the empty QModelIndex() constructor.
    \endtable
 
    Both functions above use the \l{QAbstractItemModel::createIndex()}{createIndex()}
    factory function to generate indexes for other components to use. It is normal for
    models to supply some unique identifier to this function to ensure that
    the model index can be re-associated with its corresponding item later on.
 
    \section2 Drag and drop support and MIME type handling
 
    The model/view classes support drag and drop operations, providing default behavior
    that is sufficient for many applications. However, it is also possible to customize
    the way items are encoded during drag and drop operations, whether they are copied
    or moved by default, and how they are inserted into existing models.
 
    Additionally, the convenience view classes implement specialized behavior that
    should closely follow that expected by existing developers.
    The \l{#Convenience Views}{Convenience Views} section provides an overview of this
    behavior.
 
    \section3 MIME data
 
    By default, the built-in models and views use an internal MIME type
    (\c{application/x-qabstractitemmodeldatalist}) to pass around information about
    model indexes. This specifies data for a list of items, containing the row and
    column numbers of each item, and information about the roles that each item
    supports.
 
    Data encoded using this MIME type can be obtained by calling
    QAbstractItemModel::mimeData() with a QModelIndexList containing the items to
    be serialized.
    \omit
    The following types are used to store information about
    each item as it is streamed into a QByteArray and stored in a QMimeData object:
 
    \table 70%
    \header \li Description \li Type
    \row \li Row \li int
    \row \li Column \li int
    \row \li Data for each role \li QMap<int, QVariant>
    \endtable
 
    This information can be retrieved for use in non-model classes by calling
    QMimeData::data() with the \c{application/x-qabstractitemmodeldatalist} MIME
    type and streaming out the items one by one.
    \endomit
 
    When implementing drag and drop support in a custom model, it is possible to
    export items of data in specialized formats by reimplementing the following
    function:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::mimeData()}{mimeData()}
         \li This function can be reimplemented to return data in formats other
            than the default \c{application/x-qabstractitemmodeldatalist} internal
            MIME type.
 
            Subclasses can obtain the default QMimeData object from the base class
            and add data to it in additional formats.
    \endtable
 
    For many models, it is useful to provide the contents of items in common format
    represented by MIME types such as \c{text/plain} and \c{image/png}. Note that
    images, colors and HTML documents can easily be added to a QMimeData object with
    the QMimeData::setImageData(), QMimeData::setColorData(), and
    QMimeData::setHtml() functions.
 
    \section3 Accepting dropped data
 
    When a drag and drop operation is performed over a view, the underlying model is
    queried to determine which types of operation it supports and the MIME types
    it can accept. This information is provided by the
    QAbstractItemModel::supportedDropActions() and QAbstractItemModel::mimeTypes()
    functions. Models that do not override the implementations provided by
    QAbstractItemModel support copy operations and the default internal MIME type
    for items.
 
    When serialized item data is dropped onto a view, the data is inserted into
    the current model using its implementation of QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData().
    The default implementation of this function will never overwrite any data in the
    model; instead, it tries to insert the items of data either as siblings of an
    item, or as children of that item.
 
    To take advantage of QAbstractItemModel's default implementation for the built-in
    MIME type, new models must provide reimplementations of the following functions:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertRows()}{insertRows()}
         \li {1, 2} These functions enable the model to automatically insert new data using
            the existing implementation provided by QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData().
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertColumns()}{insertColumns()}
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::setData()}{setData()}
         \li Allows the new rows and columns to be populated with items.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::setItemData()}{setItemData()}
         \li This function provides more efficient support for populating new items.
    \endtable
 
    To accept other forms of data, these functions must be reimplemented:
 
    \table 70%
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::supportedDropActions()}{supportedDropActions()}
         \li Used to return a combination of \l{Qt::DropActions}{drop actions},
            indicating the types of drag and drop operations that the model accepts.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::mimeTypes()}{mimeTypes()}
         \li Used to return a list of MIME types that can be decoded and handled by
            the model. Generally, the MIME types that are supported for input into
            the model are the same as those that it can use when encoding data for
            use by external components.
    \row \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData()}{dropMimeData()}
         \li Performs the actual decoding of the data transferred by drag and drop
            operations, determines where in the model it will be set, and inserts
            new rows and columns where necessary. How this function is implemented
            in subclasses depends on the requirements of the data exposed by each
            model.
    \endtable
 
    If the implementation of the \l{QAbstractItemModel::dropMimeData()}{dropMimeData()}
    function changes the dimensions of a model by inserting or removing rows or
    columns, or if items of data are modified, care must be taken to ensure that
    all relevant signals are emitted. It can be useful to simply call
    reimplementations of other functions in the subclass, such as
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::setData()}{setData()},
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertRows()}{insertRows()}, and
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::insertColumns()}{insertColumns()}, to ensure that the
    model behaves consistently.
 
    In order to ensure drag operations work properly, it is important to
    reimplement the following functions that remove data from the model:
 
    \list
        \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{removeRows()}
        \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{removeRow()}
        \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{removeColumns()}
        \li \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{removeColumn()}
    \endlist
 
    For more information about drag and drop with item views, refer to
    \l{Using drag and drop with item views}.
 
    \section3 Convenience views
 
    The convenience views (QListWidget, QTableWidget, and QTreeWidget) override
    the default drag and drop functionality to provide less flexible, but more
    natural behavior that is appropriate for many applications. For example,
    since it is more common to drop data into cells in a QTableWidget, replacing
    the existing contents with the data being transferred, the underlying model
    will set the data of the target items rather than insert new rows and columns
    into the model. For more information on drag and drop in convenience views,
    you can see \l{Using drag and drop with item views}.
 
    \section2 Performance optimization for large amounts of data
 
    The \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{canFetchMore()} function checks if the parent
    has more data available and returns \c true or false accordingly. The
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{fetchMore()} function fetches data based on the
    parent specified. Both these functions can be combined, for example, in a
    database query involving incremental data to populate a QAbstractItemModel.
    We reimplement \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{canFetchMore()} to indicate if there
    is more data to be fetched and \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{fetchMore()} to
    populate the model as required.
 
    Another example would be dynamically populated tree models, where we
    reimplement \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{fetchMore()} when a branch in the tree
    model is expanded.
 
    If your reimplementation of \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{fetchMore()} adds rows
    to the model, you need to call \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{beginInsertRows()}
    and \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{endInsertRows()}. Also, both
    \l{QAbstractItemModel::}{canFetchMore()} and  \l{QAbstractItemModel::}
    {fetchMore()} must be reimplemented as their default implementation returns
    false and does nothing.
 
    \target Model/View Classes
    \section1 The Model/View Classes
 
    These classes use the model/view design pattern in which the
    underlying data (in the model) is kept separate from the way the
    data is presented and manipulated by the user (in the view).
 
    \annotatedlist model-view
 
    \section1 Related Examples
 
    \list
    \li \l{itemviews/simpletreemodel}{Simple Tree Model}
    \endlist
*/