02 The class TableColumn

Often you do not need to change anything directly in objects of this class because the columns are managed by the TableFrame. But there are some special attributes which are not accessible via the TableFrame (e.g., the right pen or the paddings). There are getters and setters for the attributes of the class.

• columnName – the name of the column, it has to be unique for a table. You will use it to add data to the table.
• title – the title text for the header row
• lineBreak – flag if there is line break after the column
• rightPen – the pen for vertical lines right to the column (has no effect for the last column if there is a border around the table)
• sizeWidthToContents – flag if the width of the column has to be set to the calculated maximum width of the content of that column.
• sizeWidthToHeader – flag it the width of the column has to be set to the width of the title text
• hAlignment – horizontal alignment (default left)
• vAlignment – vertical alignment (default top)
• paddingLeft, paddingRight, paddingTop, paddingBottom – paddings in the cells of the table.

The function to add columns to a table returns a reference to the newly added column. With this reference you can modify the column. The next example code shows how you can do it. The pen right of the column is set to 0.1mm with a grey color and there is a padding on the right side of 2mm.

$tcol = $table->addColumn("frametype", "Frame type", 40.0);
$tcol->setRightPen(new ReportLib\Pen(0.1, "#C0C0C0"));
$tcol->setPaddingRight(2.0);

The next section shows how to add columns to a table frame and how you can adjust them.