How to show/hide a column at runtime?

Question

I'd like to show/hide a column at runtime based on a particular condition. I'm using "Print when expression" to conditionally show/hide this column (and it's header) in my report. When the column is hidden, the space it would have occupied is left blank, which is not particularly attractive.

I would prefer if the extra space was used in a more effective manner, possibilities include:

the width of the report is reduced by the width of the hidden column
the extra space is distributed among the remaining columns

In theory, I could achieve the first by setting the width of the column (and header) to 0, but also indicate that the column should resize to fit its contents. But JasperReports does not provide a "resize width to fit contents" option.

Another possibility is to generate reports using the Jasper API instead of defining the report template in XML. But that seems like a lot of effort for such a simple requirement.

Petter Friberg · Answer 1 · 2016-04-28T10:30:54.540

In later version (v5 or above) of jasper reports you can use the jr:table component and truly achieve this (without the use of java code as using dynamic-jasper or dynamic-reports).

The method is using a <printWhenExpression/> under the <jr:column/>

Example

Sample Data

+----------------+--------+
|      User      |  Rep   |
+----------------+--------+
| Jon Skeet      | 854503 |
| Darin Dimitrov | 652133 |
| BalusC         | 639753 |
| Hans Passant   | 616871 |
| Me             |   6487 |
+----------------+--------+

Sample jrxml

Note: the parameter $P{displayRecordNumber} and the <printWhenExpression> under first jr:column

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="reputation" pageWidth="595" pageHeight="842" columnWidth="555" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" uuid="a88bd694-4f90-41fc-84d0-002b90b2d73e">
    <style name="table">
        <box>
            <pen lineWidth="1.0" lineColor="#000000"/>
        </box>
    </style>
    <style name="table_TH" mode="Opaque" backcolor="#F0F8FF">
        <box>
            <pen lineWidth="0.5" lineColor="#000000"/>
        </box>
    </style>
    <style name="table_CH" mode="Opaque" backcolor="#BFE1FF">
        <box>
            <pen lineWidth="0.5" lineColor="#000000"/>
        </box>
    </style>
    <style name="table_TD" mode="Opaque" backcolor="#FFFFFF">
        <box>
            <pen lineWidth="0.5" lineColor="#000000"/>
        </box>
    </style>
    <subDataset name="tableDataset" uuid="7a53770f-0350-4a73-bfc1-48a5f6386594">
        <field name="User" class="java.lang.String"/>
        <field name="Rep" class="java.math.BigDecimal"/>
    </subDataset>
    <parameter name="displayRecordNumber" class="java.lang.Boolean">
        <defaultValueExpression><![CDATA[true]]></defaultValueExpression>
    </parameter>
    <queryString>
        <![CDATA[]]>
    </queryString>
    <title>
        <band height="50">
            <componentElement>
                <reportElement key="table" style="table" x="0" y="0" width="555" height="47" uuid="76ab08c6-e757-4785-a43d-b65ad4ab1dd5"/>
                <jr:table xmlns:jr="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/components" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports/components http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/components.xsd">
                    <datasetRun subDataset="tableDataset" uuid="07e5f1c2-af7f-4373-b653-c127c47c9fa4">
                        <dataSourceExpression><![CDATA[$P{REPORT_DATA_SOURCE}]]></dataSourceExpression>
                    </datasetRun>
                    <jr:column width="90" uuid="918270fe-25c8-4a9b-a872-91299cddbc31">
                        <printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$P{displayRecordNumber}]]></printWhenExpression>
                        <jr:columnHeader style="table_CH" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <staticText>
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="5cd6da41-01d5-4f74-99c2-06784f891d1e"/>
                                <textElement textAlignment="Center" verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <text><![CDATA[Record number]]></text>
                            </staticText>
                        </jr:columnHeader>
                        <jr:detailCell style="table_TD" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <textField>
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="5fe48359-0e7e-44b2-93ac-f55404189832"/>
                                <textElement textAlignment="Center" verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$V{REPORT_COUNT}]]></textFieldExpression>
                            </textField>
                        </jr:detailCell>
                    </jr:column>
                    <jr:column width="90" uuid="7979d8a2-4e3c-42a7-9ff9-86f8e0b164bc">
                        <jr:columnHeader style="table_CH" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <staticText>
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="61d5f1b6-7677-4511-a10c-1fb8a56a4b2a"/>
                                <textElement textAlignment="Center" verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <text><![CDATA[Username]]></text>
                            </staticText>
                        </jr:columnHeader>
                        <jr:detailCell style="table_TD" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <textField>
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="a3cdb99d-3bf6-4c66-b50c-259b9aabfaef"/>
                                <box leftPadding="3" rightPadding="3"/>
                                <textElement verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{User}]]></textFieldExpression>
                            </textField>
                        </jr:detailCell>
                    </jr:column>
                    <jr:column width="90" uuid="625e4e5e-5057-4eab-b4a9-c5b22844d25c">
                        <jr:columnHeader style="table_CH" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <staticText>
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="e1c07cb8-a44c-4a8d-8566-5c86d6671282"/>
                                <textElement textAlignment="Center" verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <text><![CDATA[Reputation]]></text>
                            </staticText>
                        </jr:columnHeader>
                        <jr:detailCell style="table_TD" height="30" rowSpan="1">
                            <textField pattern="#,##0">
                                <reportElement x="0" y="0" width="90" height="30" uuid="6be2d79f-be82-4c7b-afd9-0039fb8b3189"/>
                                <box leftPadding="3" rightPadding="3"/>
                                <textElement textAlignment="Right" verticalAlignment="Middle"/>
                                <textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{Rep}]]></textFieldExpression>
                            </textField>
                        </jr:detailCell>
                    </jr:column>
                </jr:table>
            </componentElement>
        </band>
    </title>
</jasperReport>

Output with $P{displayRecordNumber}=true

Output with $P{displayRecordNumber}=false

As you can see the columns adapts nicely on the basis of which are displayed.

Here's a video tutorial that goes through a similar approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmrqo9fDkOs — Kamal, Mar 08 '18 at 23:39

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '12 at 07:32

4

JasperDesign is used to modify the template object (JasperReport) from within the code at runtime. I guess this might fit in your case.

answered Sep 18 '12 at 07:32

Cid

1,453
1
18
37

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '10 at 21:25

Remove line when blank: This option takes away the vertical space occupied by an object, if it is not visible; the element visibility is determined by the value of the expression contained in the Print when expression attribute. Think of the page as a grid where the elements are placed, with a line being the space the element occupies. Figure 4-17 highlights the element A line; in order to really remove this line, all the elements that share a portion of the line have to be null (that is, they will not be printed).

`Remove line when blank` - The question was how to hide the column, not the row — Alex K, Aug 25 '13 at 18:55

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 01 '08 at 16:33

A slight variation on the "second report" theme that I have used is to isolate the part of the report where you have an optional column into it's own subreport, and then create two subreports, one with and one without the column, and then use conditions to determine which subreport to print.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 08 '10 at 07:12

1

I recommend to use DynamicReports, it's open source and based on JasperReports. The main benefit of this library is a dynamic report design and no need for a visual report designer.

answered Oct 08 '10 at 07:12

Ricardo

11
1

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 11 '12 at 19:14

I guess this answer comes way too late, but I add it for the record. In my case I could solve it without any additional dependencies or tools. In the JRXML file, I just added the textfields width a dynamic width multiple times. Once per possible width that is. Then on each textfield, I have set that it should only be printed in case of a certain condition.

This might not be as elegant as setting the width dynamically, but it does the trick without any hassle with extra libraries.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 22 '08 at 21:47

If it is just one column, is it possible to place this column to the far right, and then use the print when expression. That way there is not a hole in the middle. I know this is not ideal, as I had tried to do what you are currently trying to accomplish in the past, and could not find what I call a good solution.

A second idea would to be create a second report based on the first with out the column, and then when calling the report check the condition, to decide which one to call. Again not ideal, but would work.

I know this is not really the answer you were looking for, but one of these suggestions may work for you.

The first solution won't really work because there is more than one column and there is a background color on the report header, so it will still look odd if there are missing columns. The second solution involves duplicating the report which is the very issue I'm trying to avoid :) Thanks anyway! — Dónal, Sep 23 '08 at 02:55

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 02 '10 at 18:39

Check THIS In that tutorial they are using XML template with Velocity framework. This is pretty complex. And to make it simpler you can us DynamicJasper. This library is an open source Java API that works over JasperReports that solves the dynamic columns issue.

How to show/hide a column at runtime?

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