PDFlib 8 Windows COM/.NET Tutorial

8.3.3 Table and Column Widths
When adding a cell to the table, you define the number of columns and/or rows
spanned by the cell with the colspan and rowspan options. By default, a cell spans one
column and one row. The total number of columns and rows in the table is implicitly increased
by the respective values when adding a cell. Figure 8.33 shows an example of a
table containing three columns and four rows.
row 1
row 2
row 3
row 4
1 1
1 2
1 3
1 4
cell ............ spanning ............ three ............ columns
cell ...... spanning ...... two ...... columns
simple cell
simple cell
2 3
2 4
simple cell
simple cell
3 2
cell ....
.... spanning ....
.... three rows
Fig. 8.33
Simple cells and cells spanning
several rows or columns
column 1 column 2 column 3
Furthermore you can explicitly supply the width of the first column spanned by the cell
with the colwidth option. By supplying each cell with a defined first column width all
those width values will implicitly add up to the total table width. Figure 8.34 shows an
example.
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
colspan=3
colwidth=50
colspan=2
colwidth=50
colspan=1
colwidth=50
colspan=1
colwidth=50
4
2
2
3
4
colspan=1
colwidth=100
colspan=1
colwidth=100
3
2
rowspan=3
colwidth=90
Fig. 8.34
Column widths define
the total table width.
50 100 90
total table width of 240
Alternatively, you can specify the column widths as percentages if appropriate. In this
case the percentages refer to the width of the table’s fitbox. Either none or all column
widths must be supplied as percentages.
If some columns are combined to a column scaling group with the colscalegroup option
of add_table_cell( ), their widths will be adjusted to the widest column in the group
(see Figure 8.35),
column scaling group
Max. Load
Range
Weight
Speed
Fig. 8.35
The last four cells in the first row are in the
same column scaling group. They will have
the same widths.
Giant Wing
12g
18m
14g
8m/s
Long Distance Glider
5g
30m
11.2g
5m/s
Cone Head Rocket
7g
7m
12.4g
6m/s
If absolute coordinates are used (as opposed to percentages) and there are cells left
without any column width defined, the missing widths are calculated as follows: First,
8.3 Table Formatting 233