Tables are represented by the PdfTable object creatable via the CreateTable method of the PdfDocument object.

PdfTable is a free-floating entity. It is not tied to a canvas, page or any other object. Creating or changing a PdfTable object has no effect on the appearance of the document until the table, or any portion thereof, is rendered onto a canvas via the Canvas.DrawTable method. The same table can be drawn on multiple pages, or be part of one or more PdfGraphics objects.

7.1.1 Table Creation Parameters

The Doc.CreateTable method requires two parameters: Width and Height (in default user units). The number of columns and rows in the table is specified via Cols and Rows, respectively. These parameters are both 1 by default. When a table is created, all rows and columns are spaced out evenly within the table.

A generic table has an outer border, and several rows of cells. Each cell has a border of its own. Cells are separated from each other and the outer border by a margin. The following diagram illustrates various table parameters:

A table's origin is located in the upper-left corner of the table. The y axis still extends upwards, so all y-coordinates of the cells are negative.

Border is the width of the table's outer border (0 by default.)

CellBorder is the width of all cell borders (1 by default.) CellSpacing is the width of a margin that separates individual cells from each other and the outer border (0 by default).

CellPadding is the width of a margin within a cell that separates text written in that cell from the cell's borders (0 by default.)

The table colors are specified by the following parameters: BorderColor (the color of the outer border, black by default), CellBorderColor (the color of all cell borders, black by default), BgColor (the color of areas between cells, transparent by default), and CellBgColor (the color of areas within cell borders, transparent by default).

7.1.2 Working with Individual Rows and Cells

The PdfTable object provides the Rows property which returns the PdfRows collection of PdfRow objects representing individual table rows. The PdfRow object allows you to change this row's height and move it up and down within the table. It also allows you to change border and background colors of all its cells via the BorderColor and BgColor properties.

The PdfRow object provides the Cells property which returns the PdfCells collection of PdfCell objects representing individual cells in a row. The PdfCell object enables you to change the border width, border color, background color, size, padding, ColSpan and RowSpan of an individual cell.

An individual table cell can also be referenced directly via PdfTable's default property At by specifying 1-based row and cell indices as arguments, as follows:

Set Cell = Table.At(4, 2)

or simply

Set Cell = Table(4, 2)

Rows and Cells are numbered from left to right and from top to bottom. Therefore, the upper-left cell of a table has the indices (1, 1).

The PdfCell object also provides the AddText method for placing text in a cell. This method is almost identical to Canvas.DrawText, except that instead of the X, Y, Width and Height parameters the cell coordinates and sizes are used, and two extra optional parameters, IndentX and IndentY are added for precise positioning of text inside the cell. This method also uses an optional Expand parameter described below. AddText's Font argument is optional but for it to be omitted, you must specify a table-wide default font via the Table.Font property.

The following code sample uses all the properties, methods and collections described above to draw a chessboard. Here, we also use a freeware symbol font Chess Merida residing in the file MERIFONT.TTF.

VBScript

' Create 8x8 table to depict a chessboard Set Table = Doc.CreateTable( "width=200; height=200; rows=8; cols=8; border=1; cellborder=0; cellspacing=2") ' Select a Chess font to depict chess pieces Set Font = Doc.Fonts.LoadFromFile( Server.MapPath("MERIFONT.TTF") ) Table.Font = Font ' initialize Pieces array Dim Pieces Pieces = Array(0,_ &HF074, &HF06D, &HF076, &HF077, &HF06C, &HF076, &HF06D, &HF074, _ &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, &HF06F, _ &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, _ &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, _ &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, _ &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, &HF000, _ &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, &HF070, _ &HF072, &HF06E, &HF062, &HF071, &HF06B, &HF062, &HF06E, &HF072 ) ' go over all cells in the table For Each Row in Table.Rows    For Each Cell in Row.Cells       ' set background on cells which sum of indices is odd       If (Cell.Index + Row.Index) Mod 2 = 1 Then          Cell.BgColor = "brown"       End if       Piece = Pieces( 8 * (Row.Index - 1) + Cell.Index )       Cell.AddText ChrW(Piece), "size=20; indentx=1; indenty=1"    Next Next ' Add a new page Set Page = Doc.Pages.Add Page.Canvas.DrawTable Table, "x=206, y=498"

C#

... // beginning omitted for brevity // initialize Pieces array int [] Pieces = {0, 0xF074, 0xF06D, 0xF076, 0xF077, 0xF06C, 0xF076, 0xF06D, 0xF074, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF06F, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF000, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF070, 0xF072, 0xF06E, 0xF062, 0xF071, 0xF06B, 0xF062, 0xF06E, 0xF072 }; // go over all cells in the table foreach( IPdfRow objRow in objTable.Rows ) {    foreach( IPdfCell objCell in objRow.Cells )    {       // set background on cells which sum of indices is odd       if( (objCell.Index + objRow.Index) % 2 == 1 )          objCell.BgColor = "brown";       int Piece = Pieces[ 8 * (objRow.Index - 1) + objCell.Index ];       objCell.AddText( ((char)Piece).ToString(), "size=20; indentx=1; indenty=1", Missing.Value );    } } ... // end omitted for brevity

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The DrawTable method also accepts an optional MaxHeight parameter which limits the vertical space the table can occupy on a canvas. By default, the limit is the bottom of the canvas. If a row does not fully fit in the space provided, it is not rendered, and neither are the rows that follow.

The DrawTable method is capable of rendering only a certain range of rows, or a set of ranges. This is especially handy when you need to render a large table that spans several pages, and you want the header and/or footer rows of the table to be present on each page. The row ranges are specified via the parameters RowFrom - RowTo, RowFrom1 - RowTo1, RowFrom2- RowTo2, etc.

DrawTable returns the index of the last row it managed to render.

The following code sample renders a multi-page report from data residing in a database table. This sample dynamically appends pages to the PDF document as needed to accommodate the table. The data for this code sample is taken from the MS Access file asppdf.mdb residing in the \Samples\Db subdirectory of the installation.

VBScript

Set PDF = Server.CreateObject("Persits.Pdf") Set Param = PDF.CreateParam Set TextParam = PDF.CreateParam Set Doc = PDF.CreateDocument ' Create table with one row (header), and 5 columns Set Table = Doc.CreateTable("width=500; height=20; Rows=1; Cols=5; Border=1; CellSpacing=-1; cellpadding=2 ") Table.Font = Doc.Fonts("Helvetica") Set HeaderRow = Table.Rows(1) Param.Set("alignment=center") With HeaderRow    .BGColor = &H90F0FE    .Cells(1).AddText "Category", Param    .Cells(2).AddText "Description", Param    .Cells(3).AddText "Billable", Param    .Cells(4).AddText "Date", Param    .Cells(5).AddText "Amount", Param End With ' Set column widths With Table.Rows(1)    .Cells(1).Width = 80    .Cells(2).Width = 160    .Cells(3).Width = 50    .Cells(4).Width = 70    .Cells(5).Width = 60 End With ' Populate table with data Set Conn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Connect = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("..\db\asppdf.mdb") Conn.Open Connect Set rs = Server.CreateObject("adodb.recordset") rs.Open "select * from report order by expensedate", Conn param.Set "expand=true" ' expand cell vertically Do While Not rs.EOF    Set Row = Table.Rows.Add(20) ' row height    param.Add "alignment=left"    Row.Cells(1).AddText rs("Category"), param    Row.Cells(2).AddText rs("Description"), param    param.Add "alignment=center"    If rs("Billable") Then Billable = "Yes" Else Billable = "No"    Row.Cells(3).AddText Billable, param    Row.Cells(4).AddText pdf.FormatDate( rs("ExpenseDate"), "%d %b %Y" ), param    param.Add "alignment=right"    Row.Cells(5).AddText pdf.FormatNumber(rs("Amount"), "precision=2, delimiter=true"), param    rs.MoveNext Loop ' Render table on document Set Page = Doc.Pages.Add(612, 150) Param.Clear Param("x") = (Page.Width - Table.Width) / 2 ' center table on page Param("y") = Page.Height - 20 Param("MaxHeight") = 100 FirstRow = 2 Do While True    LastRow = Page.Canvas.DrawTable( Table, Param )    ' Print record numbers    TextParam("x") = (Page.Width - Table.Width) / 2    TextParam("y") = Page.Height - 5    TextParam.Add("color=darkgreen")    TextStr="Records "&FirstRow-1&" to "&LastRow-1&" of "&Table.Rows.Count-1    Page.Canvas.DrawText TextStr, TextParam, doc.fonts("Courier-Bold")    if LastRow >= Table.Rows.Count Then Exit Do ' entire table displayed    ' Display remaining part of table on the next page    Set Page = Page.NextPage    Param.Add( "RowTo=1; RowFrom=1" ) ' Row 1 is header.    Param("RowFrom1") = LastRow + 1 ' RowTo1 is omitted and presumed infinite    FirstRow = LastRow + 1 Loop ...

C#

IPdfManager objPdf = new PdfManager(); IPdfParam objParam = objPdf.CreateParam(Missing.Value); IPdfParam objTextParam = objPdf.CreateParam(Missing.Value); IPdfDocument objDoc = objPdf.CreateDocument(Missing.Value); // Create table with one row (header), and 5 columns IPdfTable objTable = objDoc.CreateTable("width=500; height=20; Rows=1; Cols=5; Border=1; CellSpacing=-1; cellpadding=2 "); objTable.Font = objDoc.Fonts["Helvetica", Missing.Value]; IPdfRow objHeaderRow = objTable.Rows[1]; objParam.Set("alignment=center"); objHeaderRow.BgColor = 0x90F0FE; objHeaderRow.Cells[1].AddText( "Category", objParam, Missing.Value ); objHeaderRow.Cells[2].AddText( "Description", objParam, Missing.Value ); objHeaderRow.Cells[3].AddText( "Billable", objParam, Missing.Value ); objHeaderRow.Cells[4].AddText( "Date", objParam, Missing.Value ); objHeaderRow.Cells[5].AddText( "Amount", objParam, Missing.Value ); // Set column widths objHeaderRow.Cells[1].Width = 80; objHeaderRow.Cells[2].Width = 160; objHeaderRow.Cells[3].Width = 50; objHeaderRow.Cells[4].Width = 70; objHeaderRow.Cells[5].Width = 60; objParam.Set( "expand=true" ); // expand cells vertically // Build OLE DB connection string String strConnect = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + Server.MapPath("..\\db\\asppdf.mdb"); OleDbConnection myConnection = new OleDbConnection( strConnect ); myConnection.Open(); OleDbDataAdapter myDataAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter ("select * from report", myConnection); DataSet myDataSet = new DataSet(); myDataAdapter.Fill( myDataSet, "report" ); // Populate table with data DataTable tbl = myDataSet.Tables[0]; int nCount = tbl.Rows.Count; for( int i = 0; i < nCount; i++ ) {    IPdfRow objRow = objTable.Rows.Add(20, Missing.Value); // row height    objParam.Add( "alignment=left" );    objRow.Cells[1].AddText( tbl.Rows[i]["Category"].ToString(), objParam, Missing.Value );    objRow.Cells[2].AddText( tbl.Rows[i]["Description"].ToString(), objParam, Missing.Value );    objParam.Add( "alignment=center" );    String strBillable;    if( tbl.Rows[i]["Billable"].ToString() == "True" )       strBillable = "Yes";    else       strBillable = "No";    DateTime dt = new DateTime();    dt = (DateTime)tbl.Rows[i]["ExpenseDate"];    objRow.Cells[3].AddText( strBillable, objParam, Missing.Value );    objRow.Cells[4].AddText( objPdf.FormatDate( dt, "%d %b %Y" ), objParam, Missing.Value );    float fAmount = Decimal.ToSingle( (Decimal)tbl.Rows[i]["Amount"] );    objParam.Add( "alignment=right" );    objRow.Cells[5].AddText( objPdf.FormatNumber( fAmount, "precision=2, delimiter=true"), objParam, Missing.Value ); } // Render table on document, add pages as necessary IPdfPage objPage = objDoc.Pages.Add(612, 150, Missing.Value); objParam.Clear(); objParam["x"].Value = (objPage.Width - objTable.Width) / 2; // center table objParam["y"].Value = objPage.Height - 20; objParam["MaxHeight"].Value = 100; int nFirstRow = 2; // use this to print record count on page while( true ) {    // Draw table. This method returns last visible row index    int nLastRow = objPage.Canvas.DrawTable( objTable, objParam );    // Print record numbers    objTextParam["x"].Value = (objPage.Width - objTable.Width) / 2;    objTextParam["y"].Value = objPage.Height - 5;    objTextParam.Add("color=darkgreen");    String strTextStr = "Records " + (nFirstRow - 1) + " to " + (nLastRow - 1) + " of " + (objTable.Rows.Count - 1 );    objPage.Canvas.DrawText( strTextStr, objTextParam, objDoc.Fonts["Courier-Bold", Missing.Value] );    if( nLastRow >= objTable.Rows.Count )       break; // entire table displayed    // Display remaining part of table on the next page    objPage = objPage.NextPage;    objParam.Add( "RowTo=1; RowFrom=1" ); // Row 1 is header    objParam["RowFrom1"].Value = nLastRow + 1; // RowTo1 is omitted    nFirstRow = nLastRow + 1; } ...

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