Printing of DataGridView

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Introduction

Few days ago, I had been working on an application, called Fee Management System, which used to take the fee details from students and display the records on the basis of certain search criteria in a grid. Then the fee collector could print the entire details in the form of a report. Although, it was not a tedious task, the integration of printing with the application took most of the time. So, I thought of sharing my code with all the other developers who are working on the printing of datagridview.

Using the Code

To simplify things, I made a sample application and used the Customers table of Northwind database. In this application, we will have a simple form that will have two button controls, one datagridview control and a print<code>document control. The form will look as under (Figure 1):

On the click of Get Customer Details button, we will load the Company Name, Contact Name, Address, Postal Code and Phone from the Customers table on to the grid and with the help of the Print button, we will print all the records in the grid. The following code snippet will make a call to Customers table and load the data on to the grid:

>//Start Code Snippet
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
#region Get Customer Details Button Click Event
/// <summary>
/// Handles the customer details button click
/// </summary>
/// <param name=""sender""></param>
/// <param name=""e""></param>
private void btnCustomerDetails_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor;
    SqlConnection sqlConnection = null;
    SqlCommand sqlCommand = null;
    SqlDataReader sqlReader = null;

    try
    {
        string strQuery = "SELECT CompanyName, ContactName, Address, PostalCode,
            Phone FROM Customers";
        sqlConnection = new SqlConnection(strConnectionString);
        sqlConnection.Open();
        sqlCommand = new SqlCommand(strQuery, sqlConnection);
        sqlReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader();
        while (sqlReader.Read())
        {
            object[] row = { sqlReader[0], sqlReader[1], sqlReader[2], sqlReader[3],
            sqlReader[4] };
            dataGridView1.Rows.Add(row);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception exc)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK,
            MessageBoxIcon.Error);
        return;
    }
    finally
    {
        Cursor.Current = Cursors.Default;
        sqlConnection.Close();
        if (sqlReader != null)
        {
            sqlReader.Dispose();
            sqlReader = null;
        }
        if (sqlCommand != null)
        {
            sqlCommand.Dispose();
            sqlCommand = null;
        }
    }
}
#endregion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
//End Code Snippet

After executing the above code sample, we will have the grid with more than 90 records as shown in Figure 2:

And finally on click of Print button, we will print all the records in a tabular form as shown in Figure 3:

The printdocument control plays a major role in this printing process. This control has a PrintPage event that will have all the logic of printing. The spacing between the cells, width of the cells, page margins are all handled in this event. Our print click button event handler will invoke the PrintDialog control and there we can set the printer, page and other settings. The following code sample will be used in the Print button click event:

//Start Code Snippet
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
#region Print Button Click Event
/// <summary>
/// Handles the print button click event
/// </summary>
/// <param name=""sender""></param>
/// <param name=""e""></param>
private void btnPrint_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{           
    //Open the print dialog
    PrintDialog printDialog = new PrintDialog();            
    printDialog.Document = printDocument1;
    printDialog.UseEXDialog = true;    
    //Get the document
    if (DialogResult.OK == printDialog.ShowDialog())
    {
        printDocument1.DocumentName = "Test Page Print";                
        printDocument1.Print();
    }
    /*
    Note: In case you want to show the Print Preview Dialog instead of 
    Print Dialog then comment the above code and uncomment the following code
    */

    //Open the print preview dialog
    //PrintPreviewDialog objPPdialog = new PrintPreviewDialog();
    //objPPdialog.Document = printDocument1;
    //objPPdialog.ShowDialog();
}
#endregion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
//End Code Snippet

So, the print button click will show the Print Dialog as shown in Figure 4:

This is a standard print dialog and you can change the settings here. Now, on the click of Print button in Print Dialog control, the PrintPage event of printdocument gets invoked and prints all the records in the grid in tabular form as show in figure 4. The PrintDialog’s Document property is set to the printdocument control and to print the document, invoke the Print method of printDocument control. This will invoke the PrintPage event of printDocument. We have also handled the BeginPrint event of printDocument, where we formatted the string to be printed. The following code sample will be called from the BeginPrint event:

//Start Code Snippet
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
#region Begin Print Event Handler
/// <summary>
/// Handles the begin print event of print document
/// </summary>
/// <param name=""sender""></param>
/// <param name=""e""></param>
private void printDocument1_BeginPrint(object sender,
    System.Drawing.Printing.PrintEventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        strFormat = new StringFormat();
        strFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;
        strFormat.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center;
        strFormat.Trimming = StringTrimming.EllipsisCharacter;

        arrColumnLefts.Clear();
        arrColumnWidths.Clear();
        iCellHeight = 0;
        iCount = 0;
        bFirstPage = true;
        bNewPage = true;

        // Calculating Total Widths
        iTotalWidth = 0;
        foreach (DataGridViewColumn dgvGridCol in dataGridView1.Columns)
        {
            iTotalWidth += dgvGridCol.Width;
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
    }
}
#endregion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
//End Code Snippet

And finally, we will call the PrintPage event which plays the crucial role in this printing process. The following code sample is used within the PrintPage event:

//Start Code Snippet
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
#region Print Page Event
/// <summary>
/// Handles the print page event of print document
/// </summary>
/// <param name=""sender""></param>
/// <param name=""e""></param>
private void printDocument1_PrintPage(object sender,
    System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        //Set the left margin
        int iLeftMargin = e.MarginBounds.Left;
        //Set the top margin
        int iTopMargin = e.MarginBounds.Top;
        //Whether more pages have to print or not
        bool bMorePagesToPrint = false;
        int iTmpWidth = 0;             

        //For the first page to print set the cell width and header height
        if (bFirstPage)
        {
            foreach (DataGridViewColumn GridCol in dataGridView1.Columns)
            {
                iTmpWidth = (int)(Math.Floor((double)((double)GridCol.Width /
                    (double)iTotalWidth * (double)iTotalWidth *
                    ((double)e.MarginBounds.Width / (double)iTotalWidth))));

                iHeaderHeight = (int)(e.Graphics.MeasureString(GridCol.HeaderText,
                    GridCol.InheritedStyle.Font, iTmpWidth).Height) + 11;

                // Save width and height of headers
                arrColumnLefts.Add(iLeftMargin);
                arrColumnWidths.Add(iTmpWidth);
                iLeftMargin += iTmpWidth;
            }
        }
        //Loop till all the grid rows not get printed
        while (iRow <= dataGridView1.Rows.Count - 1)
        {
            DataGridViewRow GridRow = dataGridView1.Rows[iRow];
            //Set the cell height
            iCellHeight = GridRow.Height + 5;
            int iCount = 0;
            //Check whether the current page settings allows more rows to print
            if (iTopMargin + iCellHeight >= e.MarginBounds.Height + e.MarginBounds.Top)
            {
                bNewPage = true;
                bFirstPage = false;
                bMorePagesToPrint = true;
                break;
            }
            else
            {
                if (bNewPage)
                {
                    //Draw Header
                    e.Graphics.DrawString("Customer Summary", 
                        new Font(dataGridView1.Font, FontStyle.Bold),
                        Brushes.Black, e.MarginBounds.Left, 
                        e.MarginBounds.Top - e.Graphics.MeasureString("Customer Summary",
                        new Font(dataGridView1.Font,FontStyle.Bold),
                        e.MarginBounds.Width).Height - 13);

                    String strDate = DateTime.Now.ToLongDateString() + " " +
                        DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString();
                    //Draw Date
                    e.Graphics.DrawString(strDate, 
                        new Font(dataGridView1.Font, FontStyle.Bold), Brushes.Black,
                        e.MarginBounds.Left + 
                        (e.MarginBounds.Width - e.Graphics.MeasureString (strDate, 
                        new Font(dataGridView1.Font, FontStyle.Bold),
                        e.MarginBounds.Width).Width), 
                        e.MarginBounds.Top - e.Graphics.MeasureString("Customer Summary",
                        new Font(new Font(dataGridView1.Font, FontStyle.Bold), 
                        FontStyle.Bold), e.MarginBounds.Width).Height - 13);

                    //Draw Columns                 
                    iTopMargin = e.MarginBounds.Top;
                    foreach (DataGridViewColumn GridCol in dataGridView1.Columns)
                    {
                        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.LightGray),    
                            new Rectangle((int)arrColumnLefts[iCount], iTopMargin,
                            (int)arrColumnWidths[iCount], iHeaderHeight));

                        e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black,             
                            new Rectangle((int)arrColumnLefts[iCount], iTopMargin,
                            (int)arrColumnWidths[iCount], iHeaderHeight));

                        e.Graphics.DrawString(GridCol.HeaderText,
                            GridCol.InheritedStyle.Font,
                            new SolidBrush(GridCol.InheritedStyle.ForeColor),
                            new RectangleF((int)arrColumnLefts[iCount], iTopMargin,
                            (int)arrColumnWidths[iCount], iHeaderHeight), strFormat);
                        iCount++;
                    }
                    bNewPage = false;
                    iTopMargin += iHeaderHeight;
                }
                iCount = 0;
                //Draw Columns Contents                
                foreach (DataGridViewCell Cel in GridRow.Cells)
                {
                    if (Cel.Value != null)
                    {
                        e.Graphics.DrawString(Cel.Value.ToString(),
                            Cel.InheritedStyle.Font,
                            new SolidBrush(Cel.InheritedStyle.ForeColor),
                            new RectangleF((int)arrColumnLefts[iCount],
                            (float)iTopMargin,
                            (int)arrColumnWidths[iCount], (float)iCellHeight),
                            strFormat);
                    }
                    //Drawing Cells Borders 
                    e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 
                        new Rectangle((int)arrColumnLefts[iCount], iTopMargin,
                        (int)arrColumnWidths[iCount], iCellHeight)); 
                    iCount++;
                }
            }
            iRow++;
            iTopMargin += iCellHeight;                    
        }        
        //If more lines exist, print another page.
        if (bMorePagesToPrint)
            e.HasMorePages = true;
        else
            e.HasMorePages = false;
    }
    catch (Exception exc)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK,
           MessageBoxIcon.Error);
    }
}
#endregion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
//End Code Snippet

Here it is. You can see how easy the printing of datagridview records is. The sample application is also attached for your reference. Let me know in case you have any queries/issues.

Happy programming!