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/*
* JasperReports - Free Java Reporting Library.
* Copyright (C) 2001 - 2019 TIBCO Software Inc. All rights reserved.
* http://www.jaspersoft.com
*
* Unless you have purchased a commercial license agreement from Jaspersoft,
* the following license terms apply:
*
* This program is part of JasperReports.
*
* JasperReports is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* JasperReports is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with JasperReports. If not, see
* The Table Component
* The majority of reports created by a reporting tool have a tabular structure because, most
* of the time, the tool has to iterate through a set of records, extracting values from the
* same fields in each record, then display the values one beside the other, resulting in the
* table-structured content. You could always design the tables' presentation in
* JasperReports. However, it did not produce a fully developed table. Text fields and other
* elements were simply aligned across the different report bands. When they were filled
* with data at runtime, the output looked like a table even though there is no tabular
* structure at design time.
*
* In order to obtain truly dynamic table structures, the reporting engine was
* extended by introducing the Table component inside report templates. The Table component
* advances JasperReport's capabilities a few steps when compared to the List component.
*
* Just like the List component, the Table component iterates through the records of a
* dataset. But for each of these records, it renders a different cell for each of its declared
* columns (not just one cell per record, as the List component does). From this perspective,
* the List component is like a table with only one column. Furthermore, the Table
* component allows defining cells for column headers and row headers and also has the
* concept of grouping, just like a normal report template has. Viewed in this way, the
* Table component is as powerful as a subreport; its content is structured in columns and
* cells, and its definition is embedded in the containing report template instead of being a
* separate file altogether.
*
* The Table component gets its data from a subdataset defined in the report. The
* component includes a <datasetRun> JRXML element (equivalent to a
* {@link net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRDatasetRun JRDatasetRun} at the API level),
* which contains the information required to instantiate the subdataset. A data source
* object can be sent to the subdataset, or, when the subdataset embeds a query, connection
* parameters and query parameters can be sent. The subdataset is instantiated when the
* Table component is evaluated and it iterates through the records it produces.
*
* From a high-level perspective, a Table component is a list of columns. These columns
* can be grouped and can form a hierarchy, with adjacent columns sharing a common
* header and/or footer. When the table is generated at runtime, columns can be
* skipped/hidden based on a Boolean condition that can be associated with each column.
*
* Within a column, the Table component declares sections for grouping the content, such
* as a table header and footer, column and row header and footer, and an unlimited number
* of nested group headers and footers. For each section, the column can specify a cell.
* Overall, the output of the table is made up of a series of cells that correspond to the
* content of the table, including, for instance, cells for column and row headers and
* footers, and headings and summaries for the different levels of groups in the table. The
* table cells behave much like frame elements, because they can contain several nested
* elements in a free-form layout.
*
* Each table cell is evaluated in the context of the subdataset, therefore expressions used
* by the elements can only refer to parameters, fields and variables that are defined in the
* table's associated subdataset. However, unlike the List component, delayed evaluation
* times do work for elements in the table cells, with respect to the context of the table
* dataset.
*
*/
package net.sf.jasperreports.components.table;