itext-table

-http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-itext/table.html

Table of Contents

• Creating a Table
• Table Width
• Spacing Before and After Table
• Column Widths
• Column Span
• Cell Text Mode and Composite Mode
• Default Cell Settings in Text Mode
• Cell Alignment
• Cell Indentation
• Cell Leading
• Cell Padding
• Cell Borders and Colors
• Cell Rotation
• Tables and Images
• Nested Tables

You can add tables to a PDF document using the com.itextpdf.text.PdfPTable class in IText. Tables are some of the more complex objects in IText, so this text is a bit larger than the rest of the texts in this tutorial. Here is a list of the topics covered:

1. Creating a Table
2. Table Width
3. Spacing Before and After Table
4. Column Widths
5. Column Span
6. Cell Text Mode and Composite Mode
7. Default Cell Setting in Text Mode
8. Cell Alignment
9. Cell Indentation
10. Cell Leading
11. Cell Padding
12. Cell Borders and Colors
13. Cell Rotation
14. Tables and Images
15. Nested Tables

Creating a Table

When instantiating a PdfTable you must tell how many columns the table should have. You pass the number of columns as a parameter to the PdfPTable constructor.

To add cells to the table you call the addCell() method, passing PdfPCell instances, or other IText objects like Paragraph etc. Keep in mind though, that there is a difference in behaviour depending on what object you add. See the Cell Text Mode and Composite Modesection for more info.

Here is a simple code example:

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class TableExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Document document = new Document();

        try {
            PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
                new FileOutputStream("HelloWorld-Table.pdf"));

            document.open();

            PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(3); // 3 columns.

            PdfPCell cell1 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 1"));
            PdfPCell cell2 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 2"));
            PdfPCell cell3 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 3"));

            table.addCell(cell1);
            table.addCell(cell2);
            table.addCell(cell3);

            document.add(table);

            document.close();
        } catch(Exception e){

        }
    }
}

Here is what the generated document looks like:

An IText Table

Table Width

You can set the table width using the setWidthPercentage() metod. This sets the width of the table as a percentage of the width of the page. The default width is 80%. Here is a code example:

table.setWidthPercentage(100);

Spacing Before and After Table

You can set the spacing before and after the table like this:

table.setSpacingBefore(10f);

table.setSpacingAfter(10f);

Column Widths

You can set the column widths using the setWidths() method, like this:

float[] columnWidths = {2f, 1f, 1f};

table.setWidths(columnWidths);

The column widths in the float array are relative widths. In the example above the first column is twice the width of each of the following columns. You can use any numbers in the width array, and they will be interpreted as relative values. For instance, you could have written 100, 50, 50 if you needed a finer grained control over the column sizes.

Column Span

If you need a cell to span multiple columns you can do so using the setColspan() method, like this:

cell.setColspan(2);

Cell Text Mode and Composite Mode

Cells can be added in either text mode or composite mode.

In text mode the settings of the added element (Phrase, Paragraph etc.) is ignored. Only the settings of the cell is applied.

In composite mode the settings of the added element is respected. Settings like leading (line spacing), margins etc. is thus respected.

Content added to the PdfCell's constructor is considered text mode content. Content added via the PdfCell.addElement() method is considered composite mode content. Here are some examples:

PdfCell textModeCell = new PdfCell(new Paragraph("Text Mode"));

PdfCell compositeModeCell = new PdfCell();
compositeModeCell.addElement(new Paragraph("Composite Mode"));

table.addCell(new Paragraph("Text Mode"));

Default Cell Settings in Text Mode

You can set the default cell settings of new cells added, using the table.addCell() methods, like this:

PdfCell defaultCell = table.getDefaultCell();
defaultCell.setBorder(PdfCell.NO_BORDER);
//set more default settings.

//add cells with default settings:
table.addCell(new Paragraph("default text mode cell");
table.addCell(new Phrase("default text mode cell");

Cell Alignment

You can set the cell alignment using the setHorizontalAlignment() andsetVerticalAlignment(), like this:

cell.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT);
cell.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
cell.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT);

cell.setVerticalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_TOP);
cell.setVerticalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE);
cell.setVerticalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_BOTTOM);

In composite mode you can also set the alignment of each Paragraph individually, by setting the paragraph alignment on the Paragraph object.

Cell Indentation

You can set the indentation of cell content.

The method setIndent() sets the indentation of the first paragraph in the cell.

The method setFollowingIndent() sets the indentation of the following paragraphs in the cell.

The method setRightIndent() sets the right indentation of the cell content.

Cell Leading

You can set the leading (line spacing) of elements in a cell.

If the cell is in composite mode, just set the leading on the element added, e.g. set the leading of a Paragraph before adding it to the cell.

In text mode you can set a leading value that is used on the entire cell content. To so do, use thesetLeading() method. This method takes two parameters. A fixed leading and a leading calculated on font height. Here are two examples:

cell.setLeading(15f, 0f);

cell.setLeading(0f, 1.5f);

The first method call sets the leading to 15 points + 0 x font height.

The second method call sets the leading to 0 points + 1.5 x font height.

Cell Padding

You can set the padding of a cell (distance between cell edge and content) using these methods:

cell.setPadding(5);

cell.setPaddingLeft(8);
cell.setPaddingRight(8);
cell.setPaddingTop(8);
cell.setPaddingBottom(8);

Cell Borders and Colors

You can set the cell border and color using these methods:

cell.setBackgroundColor(BaseColor.YELLOW);   //sets BG color to yellow.

cell.setBorder(Rectangle.NO_BORDER);   // removes border

cell.setBorderWidth      (3f);         // sets border width to 3 units
cell.setBorderWidthLeft  (1f);
cell.setBorderWidthRight (1f);
cell.setBorderWidthTop   (1f);
cell.setBorderWidthBottom(1f);

cell.setBorderColor      (BaseColor.BLUE);  // sets blue border
cell.setBorderColorLeft  (BaseColor.GREEN);
cell.setBorderColorRight (BaseColor.GREEN);
cell.setBorderColorTop   (BaseColor.GREEN);
cell.setBorderColorBottom(BaseColor.GREEN);

To avoid having the cell border and the content overlap, if you are having thick cell borders, call the setUserBorderPadding(true), like this:

cell.setUserBorderPadding(true);

Cell Rotation

You can set the rotation of the cell content using the setRotation() method, like this:

cell.setRotation(90);

Tables and Images

You can add images to a table cell, and have either the cell fit the size of the image, or the image fit the size of the cell. You do so by passing the image to the PdfPCell constructor, along with a boolean saying whether the image should fit the cell (true), or the cell should fit the image (false). Here is how:

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.Image;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.net.URL;

public class Table3Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Document document = new Document();

        try {
            PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
                new FileOutputStream("Table3.pdf"));
            document.open();

            PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(2); // 3 columns.

            Image image = Image.getInstance("jakob-jenkov.jpg");
            PdfPCell cell1 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 1"));
            PdfPCell cell2 = new PdfPCell(image, false);

            table.addCell(cell1);
            table.addCell(cell2);

            PdfPCell cell3 = new PdfPCell(image, true);
            PdfPCell cell4 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 4"));

            table.addCell(cell3);
            table.addCell(cell4);


            document.add(table);

            document.close();
        } catch(Exception e){

        }
    }
}

Here is what the generated document looks like:

An IText Table with Image

Nested Tables

You can add a PdfTable as content inside a PdfCell, thus nesting tables within tables. Here is an example:

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class Table2Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Document document = new Document();

    try {
      PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
          new FileOutputStream("Table2.pdf"));

      document.open();

      PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(3); // 3 columns.

      PdfPCell cell1 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 1"));
      PdfPCell cell2 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 2"));
      PdfPCell cell3 = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("Cell 3"));

      PdfPTable nestedTable = new PdfPTable(2);
      nestedTable.addCell(new Paragraph("Nested Cell 1"));
      nestedTable.addCell(new Paragraph("Nested Cell 2"));

      cell3.addElement(nestedTable);

      table.addCell(cell1);
      table.addCell(cell2);
      table.addCell(cell3);

      document.add(table);

      document.close();

    } catch(Exception e){
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Here is what the generated document looks like:

An IText nested Table