Right click on TreeView: Get the node clicked at

Problem:

There is a TreeView control with n number of nodes. When the user right clicks on the TreeView control, get the node on which the right click was performed.

Background:

In TreeView control, SelectedNode property is set whenever left click occurs. This is not true for right clicks. So, we need to have some workaround for this.

Solution 1:

The most popular solution is to handle the MouseDown event. Check if the click was a right click and then use the TreeView control’s GetNodeAt API to get the node which was clicked at.

private void treeView1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Right)
{
TreeNode selectedNode = treeView1.GetNodeAt(e.X, e.Y);
MessageBox.Show("You clicked on node: " + selectedNode.Text);
}
}

Solution 2:

Handle the NodeMouseClick event. The TreeNodeMouseClickEventArgs has the node which was clicked at.

private void treeView1_NodeMouseClick(object sender, TreeNodeMouseClickEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Right)
{
MessageBox.Show("You clicked on node: " + e.Node.Text, "Solution 2");
}
}

SelectedNode property of a treeview is set whenever a left click occurs. Why can’t the same be applied for right click? Right click on a treeview is such a common UI event, that users will benefit from it.