An example of how to use GtkColumnView with GtkSignalListItemFactory for each column, where each list item in each column is a GtkLabel. This is basically a table with headers.

columnview.c

/*

ABOUT

An example of how to use GtkColumnView with GtkSignalListItemFactory for each
column, where each list item in each column is a GtkLabel. This is basically
a table with headers.

COMPILE

gcc `pkg-config --cflags gtk4` -o columnview columnview.c `pkg-config --libs gtk4`

RUN

./columnview

*/

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

/* We could play the same game with the setup function, to produce a custom
 * widget type for the items in each column, but for now we'll just use a
 * GtkLabel for all items in the view.
 */
static void
factory_setup( GtkListItemFactory *factory, GtkListItem *list_item )
{
	GtkWidget *label = gtk_label_new( "" );
	gtk_list_item_set_child( list_item, label );
}

/* The bind function for the primary key factory, corresponding to the first
 * column.
 */
static void
primary_key_factory_bind( GtkListItemFactory *factory, GtkListItem *list_item )
{
	GtkWidget *label;
	GtkStringObject *string_object;
	const char *primary_key;

	label = gtk_list_item_get_child( list_item );
	string_object = GTK_STRING_OBJECT( gtk_list_item_get_item( list_item ) );
	primary_key = gtk_string_object_get_string( string_object );

	gtk_label_set_label( GTK_LABEL( label ), primary_key );
}

/* The bind function for the other factories, corresponding to columns after
 * the primary key column.
 */
static void
value_factory_bind( GtkListItemFactory *factory, GtkListItem *list_item, gpointer user_data )
{
	GtkWidget *label;
	GtkStringObject *string_object;
	const char *primary_key, *value, *column_name = (const char *) user_data;

	label = gtk_list_item_get_child( list_item );
	string_object = GTK_STRING_OBJECT( gtk_list_item_get_item( list_item ) );
	primary_key = gtk_string_object_get_string( string_object );

	// In a real application, do some complicated lookup here to get value.
	// For this example, just concatenate the primary key and the column
	// name that was passed as user_data.
	value = g_strdup_printf( "%s-%s", column_name, primary_key );

	gtk_label_set_label( GTK_LABEL( label ), value );
}

/* Callback that starts the application.
 */
static void
activate (GtkApplication *app, gpointer	 user_data)
{
	GtkWidget *window, *view;

	GtkColumnViewColumn* column;

	char *column_names[] = { "PrimaryKey", "Apple", "Banana" };

	/* Create the application window.
	 */
	window = gtk_application_window_new( app );
	gtk_window_set_title( GTK_WINDOW( window ), "Window" );
	gtk_window_set_default_size( GTK_WINDOW( window ), 200, 200 );

	/* Define the list items of the first column. In practice, these will be the
	 * unique string keys identifying a row, and showing the primary key column
	 * will be optional ( simply skip it when adding columns ).
	 */
	char* primary_keys[] = { "0", "1", "2", NULL };

	GtkStringList *list_model = gtk_string_list_new( (const char* const*) primary_keys );

	/* Create simple selection model, which does not have any selection
	 * logic. Curiously, you can still see the mouseover highlight effect
	 * and onclick  highlight effect even for GtkNoSelection, perhaps for
	 * accessibility reasons.
	 */
	GtkNoSelection *selection_model = gtk_no_selection_new( G_LIST_MODEL( list_model ) );

	/* Initialize the array of GtkListItemFactory - one for each column.
	 */
	GtkListItemFactory *factories[3];
	for ( int i = 0; i < 3; i++ )
		factories[i] = gtk_signal_list_item_factory_new();

	/* Connect handlers to the primary key factory.
	 */
	g_signal_connect( factories[0], "setup", G_CALLBACK( factory_setup ), NULL );
	g_signal_connect( factories[0], "bind", G_CALLBACK( primary_key_factory_bind ), column_names[0] );

	/* Connect handlers to the other factories.
	 */
	for ( int i = 1; i < 3; i++ ) {
		g_signal_connect( factories[i], "setup", G_CALLBACK( factory_setup ), NULL );
		g_signal_connect( factories[i], "bind", G_CALLBACK( value_factory_bind ), column_names[i] );
	}

	/* Create the column view.
	 */
	view = gtk_column_view_new( GTK_SELECTION_MODEL( selection_model ) );
	gtk_window_set_child( GTK_WINDOW( window ), view );
	
	/* Create the columns.
	 */
	for ( int i = 0; i < 3; i++ ) {
		column = gtk_column_view_column_new( column_names[i], factories[i] );
		gtk_column_view_append_column( GTK_COLUMN_VIEW( view ), column );
	}

	/* Show everything. 
	 */
	gtk_widget_show (window);
}

/* The main just function sets up a signal handler for "activate".
 */
int
main (int argc, char **argv) {
	GtkApplication *app;
	int status;

	app = gtk_application_new ("org.gtk.example", G_APPLICATION_FLAGS_NONE);
	g_signal_connect (app, "activate", G_CALLBACK (activate), NULL);
	status = g_application_run (G_APPLICATION (app), argc, argv);
	g_object_unref (app);

	return status;
}

Thanks for sharing. Can you add a little example about how to edit the cells and update the list store with the new value?