In Jaspersoft Studio, tables consist of cells and columns. This section provides more information about working with each of these elements.

Table Elements

A table must have at least one column, but it can have more than one. A set of columns can be grouped into column groups; the groups can have headers that span several columns.

Each table is divided into sections similar the main document bands:

In the Outline view, table sections are shown as child nodes of the table element node.

In the Design view, each column has a cell for each section (for example, one cell for the table header section, another for the table footer, etc.). A cell can be undefined. If all the cells of a section are undefined, the section is not printed. If the height of all the cells of a section is zero, the section is printed but is not visible in the Design view.

Table Cells

A cell can contain any element provided by JasperReports, but since usually a cell displays only text, when an element is dropped on a cell, Jaspersoft Studio automatically arranges the element to fit the cell size. The elements in the cell can be arranged differently by right-clicking the cell (or an element in the cell) and selecting Arrange Elements Vertically or Arrange Elements Horizontally. If this approach does not fit the user requirements, the best solution is to insert a frame element in the cell and add all the required elements in that frame.

You can delete a cell by right-clicking and choosing Delete cell. If the cell is the only defined cell in the column, the entire column is removed. Similarly, if a cell is undefined, right-click it and select Add cell to create the cell. An undefined cell is automatically created when the user drags an element into it (see Working with Columns).

Edit cell properties from the Properties tab: