How to print a stringgrid (incl. formating)?

Mikael

I want to print a TStringGrid - and I want the output to look like the stringgrid. The columns in the print should have the same width as the columns in the stringgrid. The colours should be the same and the font should be the same and so on.

Can someone give me a hint on how I could do that??

Any response is most welcome.

Regards,
Mikael

diasw

Hi,
I don't think that FR can do this. I guess you need a Stringgrid which has a print-component. I think DevExpress with its XtraGrid has such a component.

hth
Sascha

Mikael

Hmm... Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps FR is not able to print a stringgrid with formating automatically, but I can not believe that is in not possbile to do it somehow.

If we take a look at the PrintStringGrid demo, I wonder if it is possible
to modify the Cross variable, so that I can change properties of
a cell - and thereby make the print look like a stringgrid

procedure TForm1.frxReport1BeforePrint(c: TfrxReportComponent);
var
 ? Cross: TfrxCrossView;
 ? i, j: Integer;
begin
 ? if c is TfrxMemoView then
 ? begin
 ?  ?  if c.Name = 'meReportTitle' then
 ?  ?  begin
 ?  ?  ?  ? TfrxMemoView(c).Memo.Text:= edTitel.text;
 ?  ?  end;
 ? end;

 ? if c is TfrxCrossView then
 ? begin
 ?  ? Cross := TfrxCrossView(c);
 ?  ? for i := 1 to StringGrid1.RowCount do
 ?  ? begin
 ?  ?  ? for j := 1 to StringGrid1.ColCount do
 ?  ?  ? begin
 ?  ?  ?  ? Cross.AddValue([i], [j], [StringGrid1.Cells[i - 1, j - 1]]);
 ?  ?  ?  ? // Can Cross be used to set the width, color and such for a cell?
 ?  ?  ? end;
 ?  ? end;
 ? end;
end;

I am a complete newbie to FR, so any help is most welcome.

Regards,
Mikael

AlexTZ

You can use vertical bands if you want to print more customizable grid. See example in the demos\main, "Old-style cross-tab" and "Calendar" reports.

Mikael

Thanks. I will try that.

Regards,
Mikael

Azrael

There's yet another way to do what you want.
It is very resource-hungry, but also the best-looking one.
You can paint your string grid to a custom bitmap (see PaintTo method), then either paste it to the database or use one of those in-memory TDataSet inheritors (for example, RxMemoryData).

Mikael

I need to print very large grids, so the bitmap approach is properly not the right solution.

Here is what I plan to do:

1. Have an empty fastreport component on my form.
2. Design the report by code. Something like this:

var
  page: TfrxReportPage;
  band: TfrxBand;
  memo: TfrxMemoView;
  cross: TfrxCrossView;
  masterBand: TfrxMasterData;
  i, x: Integer;
begin
  // Make sure that report is clean.
  report.Clear;

  // Set dataset range properties
  dataset.RangeEnd:= reCount;
  dataset.RangeEndCount:= grid.RowCount;

  // Add dataset to report
  report.DataSets.Add(dataset);

  // Add a page
  page:= TfrxReportPage.Create(report);
  page.CreateUniqueName;
  page.SetDefaults;
  page.Orientation:= poLandscape;

  // Add a report title band
  band:= TfrxReportTitle.Create(page);
  band.CreateUniqueName;
  band.Top:= 0;
  band.Height:= mm2pixel(8);

  // Add object to the report title band
  memo:= TfrxMemoView.Create(band);
  memo.CreateUniqueName;
  memo.Text:= title;
  memo.Height:= mm2pixel(8);
  memo.Align := baWidth;

  // Add masterdata band
  masterBand:= TfrxMasterData.Create(page);
  masterBand.CreateUniqueName;
  masterBand.DataSet:= dataset;
  masterBand.Top:= band.Top+band.Height+1;
  masterBand.Height:= grid.DefaultRowHeight;

  // Add objects on master data
  x:= 0;
  for i:= 0 to grid.ColCount-1 do
  begin
    memo:= TfrxMemoView.Create(masterBand);
    memo.CreateUniqueName;
    // Connect to data
    memo.DataSet:= dataset;
    memo.DataField:= 'ColNo'+IntToStr(i);
    memo.SetBounds(x, 0, grid.ColWidths[i], grid.DefaultRowHeight);
    x:= x+grid.ColWidths[i];
    memo.Frame.Typ:= [ftLeft, ftRight, ftTop, ftBottom];
    memo.GapX:= 3;
    memo.GapY:= 2;
  end;

3. Use report???s OnBeforePrint event to populate the report with data. Something like this:

procedure TForm1.beforePrint(Sender: TfrxReportComponent);
var
  col, row: Integer;
begin
  if (Sender is TfrxMemoView) and (Copy(TfrxMemoView(Sender).DataField, 1, 5) = 'ColNo') then
  begin
    row:= frxUserDataSet5.RecNo;
    col:= StrToInt(Copy(TfrxMemoView(Sender).DataField, 6, length(TfrxMemoView(Sender).DataField)));
    case mlProfGrid1.Cells[col, row].TextAlignment of
      taLeftJustify: TfrxMemoView(Sender).HAlign:= haLeft;
      taRightJustify: TfrxMemoView(Sender).HAlign:= haRight;
      taCenter: TfrxMemoView(Sender).HAlign:= haCenter;
    end;
    TfrxMemoView(Sender).Value:= mlProfGrid1.Cells[col, row].Value;
  end;