How to move fields to close gap when field is blank in Free Layout

[hondaman900]

I have a report using Free Layout where each field from the record is laid out on the page, and there is only one record per report, so the details band doesn't repeat over multiple records. I'm familiar with setting Print When Expression to hide a line item when a field is blank, but in this case, because all fields have their own layout positions, making a field not display when blank leaves a visible gap in my page. I want the other fields to move to close up the gap and reatain a grid without blank spaces.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

I'm using Jaspersoft Studio 6.6

[gustavofarias]

Have you tried setting the "Position type" to "Float"?

http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/schema.reference.html#reportElement

[hondaman900]

Thanks for the reply. However, setting all the fields and labels in the details band to float position, still leaves a blank space when the print-when-experssion evaluation is false and therefore not displayed. The other fields don't close the gap.

[gustavofarias]

You should set the "Remove line when blank" alongside "Print when expression", so when the field is not printing, it will collapse the band, making the "float" positioning take effect.