Print Formatted Text To A Printer

Rod DeValcourt

2.38/5 (12 votes)

Oct 16, 2003

CPOL

2 min read

54020

1122

Prints Formatted Text To A Printer. When you have a need for a report from a text field in a database thats small, say 2000 characters...how do you print it?

Introduction

I have run across a need to print reports from my Sql Server 2000 database tables. In other words, print a report to show what is in your database table at a functional print level, no graphics, just database fields.

I ran across some great examples for printing objects, but didn't really find one for a specific field that holds text data, say 2000 characters max. So I wrote a quick program that splits out each word based on a string of text and a variable max number of characters per line.

I placed the split out lines into an System.Collections.ArrayList and then looped it in the printing routine.

I don't have a need per se to print reports with fancy graphics, just functional printouts with a printer friendly font so don't expect the greatest print routine, just an example to point you in the right direction.

Assumptions made:

Print Line Limit: 72 based on Courier New, 12 Pt font, HP Deskjet 3650 printer. The code allows you to change this :)

10/17/2003 code update - you'll have to copy the last if statement in the following code snippet to handle lines of text in SplitUpText that have a length < nMaxCount.

public ArrayList SplitUpText(string strText,int nMaxCount)

{

int nLength = 0;

int nWhereAt = 0;

ArrayList al = new ArrayList();

char nChar;

char[] characters = strText.ToCharArray();

string strCurrentLine = "";

string strTrimmedText = "";

string strCurrentWord = "";

int nWordLength = 0;

nLength = characters.Length;

while (nWhereAt < nLength)

{

nChar = characters[nWhereAt];

if ((nChar == 32) || (nChar == '\r'))

{

strTrimmedText = strCurrentWord.Trim();

nWordLength = strTrimmedText.Length;

// add to string here

if ((strCurrentLine.Length + nWordLength + 1) > nMaxCount)

{

al.Add(strCurrentLine);

strCurrentLine = strTrimmedText + " ";

} // if ((strCurrentLine.Length + nWordLength + 1) > nMaxCount)

else

{

strCurrentLine = strCurrentLine + strTrimmedText + " ";

} // else (strCurrentLine.Length + nWordLength + 1) < nMaxCount

strCurrentWord = "";

} // if ((nChar == 32) || (nChar == '\r'))

else

{

if ((nChar != 10) && (nChar != 13))

{

strCurrentWord = strCurrentWord + nChar;

} // if ((nChar != 10) && (nChar != 13))

} // else nChar != 32 && nChar == '\r'

nWhereAt++;

} // while (nWhereAt < nLength)

if (strCurrentLine.Length > 0)

{

strTrimmedText = strCurrentLine.Trim();

al.Add(strTrimmedText);

} // if (strCurrentLine.Length > 0)

if (strCurrentWord.Length > 0)

{

strTrimmedText = strCurrentWord.Trim();

al.Add(strTrimmedText);

} // if (strCurrentWord.Length > 0)

return al;

} // public ArrayList SplitUpText(string strText,int nMaxCount)