This example show you how to create nested table in iText. To create a nested table you can add a com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable object into a cell using the com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell‘s addElement() method.

package org.kodejava.itextpdf;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Phrase;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class TableNestedDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Document doc = new Document();
        try {
            PdfWriter.getInstance(doc, new FileOutputStream("TableNestedDemo.pdf"));
            doc.open();

            PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(3);
            PdfPCell cell1 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 1"));
            PdfPCell cell2 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 2"));
            PdfPCell cell3 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 3"));

            PdfPTable nestedTable = new PdfPTable(2);
            nestedTable.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Nested 1")));
            nestedTable.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Nested 2")));
            cell3.addElement(nestedTable);

            table.addCell(cell1);
            table.addCell(cell2);
            table.addCell(cell3);
            doc.add(table);
        } catch (DocumentException | FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            doc.close();
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<!--https://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=com/itextpdf/itextpdf/5.5.13.2/itextpdf-5.5.13.2.jar-->
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
    <artifactId>itextpdf</artifactId>
    <version>5.5.13.2</version>
</dependency>

We can set the width of a table using the setWidthPercentage() method of the com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable class. This method accept a float value as a parameter. This method sets the width in a percentage of the width a table will occupy in the page. The default table’s width is 80%.

Let’s see an example on the following code:

package org.kodejava.itextpdf;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Phrase;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class TableWidthDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Document doc = new Document();
        try {
            PdfWriter.getInstance(doc, new FileOutputStream("TableWidthDemo.pdf"));
            doc.open();

            // Creates a table with 5 columns
            PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(5);
            table.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 1")));
            table.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 2")));
            table.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 3")));
            table.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 4")));
            table.addCell(new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Cell 5")));

            // Sets the width percentage that the table will occupy
            // in the page.
            table.setWidthPercentage(50);
            doc.add(table);
        } catch (DocumentException | FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            doc.close();
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<!--https://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=com/itextpdf/itextpdf/5.5.13.2/itextpdf-5.5.13.2.jar-->
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
    <artifactId>itextpdf</artifactId>
    <version>5.5.13.2</version>
</dependency>

This example shows how to create a table in a PDF document. Using the iText PDF library we can use the PdfPTable and the PdfPCell classes to create table and cells in our PDF document. In the following example we use array of strings to define the table’s data.

Let’s see the complete code snippet below:

package org.kodejava.itextpdf;

import com.itextpdf.text.*;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class TableDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] headers = new String[]{"No", "Username", "First Name", "Last Name"};
        String[][] rows = new String[][]{
                {"1", "jdow", "John", "Dow"},
                {"2", "stiger", "Scott", "Tiger"},
                {"3", "fbar", "Foo", "Bar"}
        };

        // Create a new document.
        Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER.rotate());

        try {
            // Get an instance of PdfWriter and create a Table.pdf file
            // as an output.
            PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream("TableDemo.pdf"));
            document.open();

            // Create an instance of PdfPTable. After that we transform
            // the header and rows array into a PdfPCell object. When
            // each table row is complete we have to call the
            // table.completeRow() method.
            //
            // For better presentation we also set the cell font name,
            // size and weight. And we also define the background fill
            // for the cell.
            Font fontHeader = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 12, Font.BOLD);
            Font fontRow = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 10, Font.NORMAL);

            PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(headers.length);
            for (String header : headers) {
                PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell();
                cell.setGrayFill(0.9f);
                cell.setPhrase(new Phrase(header.toUpperCase(), fontHeader));
                table.addCell(cell);
            }
            table.completeRow();

            for (String[] row : rows) {
                for (String data : row) {
                    Phrase phrase = new Phrase(data, fontRow);
                    table.addCell(new PdfPCell(phrase));
                }
                table.completeRow();
            }

            document.addTitle("PDF Table Demo");
            document.add(table);
        } catch (DocumentException | FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            document.close();
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<!--https://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=com/itextpdf/itextpdf/5.5.13.2/itextpdf-5.5.13.2.jar-->
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
    <artifactId>itextpdf</artifactId>
    <version>5.5.13.2</version>
</dependency>