>>>I'm working on a small app that has contacts down the left side, similar to this http://www.plaxo.com/tour
>>>
>>>The problem is that I'm importing close to 2000 contacts, and it's taking forever to load. I need suggestions on how to do this.
>>
>>So are you writing a web app ?
>>IAC pulling 2000 items into a list, apart from being slow, will also not be much use to a user. Even pulling by first letter would average more than 100 items - probably still too much. Without more info it's hard to know what to suggest - except using a straight-forward user entered search value and/or loading say 50 at a time with a previous/next option .....
>
>No sorry, it's a WinForms app

OK. You still probably need to come up with a strategy to avoid listing all 2000 but, if you *have* to, I think you might be able to use a DataGridView with VirtualMode set to true instead of a ListBox. Someone else probably needs to confirm this - as before my WinForms knowledge is getting rusty.

Of course, In WPF it would be a doddle - just using a VirtualizingStackPanel :-}