DataGrid Printing Class V1.0b

• Download demo project - 62.5 Kb

UML Design

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Introduction

The DataGrid control is one of the worst things to work with, yet very needed. The real problem about this control is printing the grid. This class supports RightToLeft printing, colored and aligned grid printing...

Background

I had to do a project that supports RightToLeft grid printing, but all the printing classes I found just didn't do the job. So, I made a new one...

Implementation

The main class is PrinterClass, it does the actual print. Grid is a class holding the DataGrid data, it's made of Cells and Headers. Cell represents a single cell in a grid with Location, Font Alignment etc. Header represents a single header cell (inherits Cell).

Using the code

Grid Creation

public Grid(DataGrid TheGrid)
{
    try
    {
        //get the Data in the grid
        DataTable TableGrid = (DataTable)TheGrid.DataSource;

        //set number of rows
        rows = TableGrid.Rows.Count;

        //set number of columns
        //first check if the grid has tablestyle and columnstyle

        CreateColumnStyles(TheGrid,TableGrid);

        if (TheGrid.TableStyles[TableGrid.TableName].GridColumnStyles.Count>0)
            columns = 
              TheGrid.TableStyles[TableGrid.TableName].GridColumnStyles.Count;

        //init number of columns to headers
        Headers = new Header[Columns];

        SetHeaders(TheGrid,TableGrid);

        Cells = new Cell[Rows,Columns];

        //Copy Cells
        for (int i=0;i<Rows;i++)
        {
            for (int j=0;j<Columns;j++)
            {
                Cells[i,j] = new Cell(i, j, TheGrid.Font, 
                   TheGrid.GetCellBounds(i,j), TheGrid[i,j].ToString());
            }
        }

        //define grid colors
        SetColors(TheGrid);
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }
}

Grid Printing

private void PrintDataGrid(Graphics g)
{
    StringFormat sf = new StringFormat();

    //if we want to print the grid right to left
    if (bRightToLeft)
    {
        CurrentX = PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.PaperSize.Width - 
        PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Right;

        sf.FormatFlags = StringFormatFlags.DirectionRightToLeft;
    }
    else
    {
        CurrentX = PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left;
    }

    for (int i=0;i<PrintGrid.Rows;i++)
    {
        for (int j=0;j<PrintGrid.Columns;j++)
        {
            //set cell alignment
            switch (PrintGrid[i,j].Alignment)
            {
                    //left
                case HorizontalAlignment.Left:
                    sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;
                    break;

                    //center
                case HorizontalAlignment.Center:
                    sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
                    break;

                    //right
                case HorizontalAlignment.Right:
                    sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Far;
                    break;
            }

            //advance X according to order
            if (bRightToLeft)
            {
                //draw the cell bounds (lines)
                g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black,CurrentX - PrintGrid[i,j].Width,
                CurrentY,PrintGrid[i,j].Width,PrintGrid[i,j].Height);

                //draw the cell text
                g.DrawString(PrintGrid[i,j].Text,
                   PrintGrid[i,j].Font,Brushes.Black,
                   new RectangleF(CurrentX - PrintGrid[i,j].Width, 
                   CurrentY, PrintGrid[i,j].Width,
                   PrintGrid[i,j].Height),sf);

                //next cell
                CurrentX -=PrintGrid[i,j].Width;

            }
            else
            {
                //draw the cell bounds (lines)
                g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black ,CurrentX,CurrentY, 
                     PrintGrid[i,j].Width,PrintGrid[i,j].Height);

                //draw the cell text
                //Draw text by alignment
                    
                g.DrawString(PrintGrid[i,j].Text,PrintGrid[i,j].Font, 
                     Brushes.Black, new RectangleF(CurrentX,CurrentY, 
                     PrintGrid[i,j].Width,PrintGrid[i,j].Height),sf);

                //next cell
                CurrentX +=PrintGrid[i,j].Width;
            }

        }

        //reset to beginning
        if (bRightToLeft)
        {
            //right align
            CurrentX = PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.PaperSize.Width - 
                       PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Right;
        }
        else
        {
            //left align
            CurrentX = PrintDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left;
        }

        //advance to next row
        CurrentY = CurrentY + PrintGrid[i,0].Height;
    }
}

Current Todo:

1. Fix - When grid is empty, header is not printed well.
2. When grid is lager than the WIDTH of the page, continue to next.

Other DataGrid Printing Classes

• Printing a DataGrid (Visual C#) (MSDN).
• How to Print a DataGrid in C# and .NET.