How to Achieve Alternating Row Color for Tables in PdfProcessing
Environment
| Version | Product | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 2025.3.806 | RadPdfProcessing | Desislava Yordanova |
Description
This article shows how to generate a PDF table with styled header cells with border and background color. For the data rows an alternating row color style is applied.
A similar design can be produced with the demonstrated approach:
Solution
To achieve Alternating Row Style for Tables using RadPdfProcessing, follow these steps:
- Generate dummy Report data.
- Create a PDF document and generate a table using the sample data records.
internal class Report
{
public string? JobNumber { get; set; }
public string? Description { get; set; }
public string? Location { get; set; }
public string? DocName { get; set; }
public string? DocCategory { get; set; }
public string? CBNumber { get; set; }
public string? Name { get; set; }
public string? DocType { get; set; }
public string? Status { get; set; }
public string? Pages { get; set; }
public DateTime? StatusDate { get; set; }
}
internal static class ReportFactory
{
public static List<Report> Generate(int count, int seed = 123)
{
var list = new List<Report>(count);
var rnd = new Random(seed);
string[] locations = { "New York", "Berlin", "London", "Tokyo", "Sydney" };
string[] categories = { "Engineering", "Finance", "HR", "Operations", "Legal" };
string[] names = { "Alice", "Bob", "Charlie", "Diana", "Evan", "Fiona" };
string[] docTypes = { "PDF", "DOCX", "XLSX", "DWG" };
string[] statuses = { "Draft", "In Review", "Approved", "Rejected" };
for (int i = 1; i <= count; i++)
{
list.Add(new Report
{
JobNumber = $"JOB-{i:0000}",
Description = $"Description of job {i} with some additional dummy text to test wrapping.",
Location = locations[rnd.Next(locations.Length)],
DocName = $"Document_{i}",
DocCategory = categories[rnd.Next(categories.Length)],
CBNumber = $"CB{rnd.Next(1000, 9999)}",
Name = names[rnd.Next(names.Length)],
DocType = docTypes[rnd.Next(docTypes.Length)],
Status = statuses[rnd.Next(statuses.Length)],
Pages = rnd.Next(1, 40).ToString(),
StatusDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays(-rnd.Next(0, 365))
});
}
return list;
}
}
private static void GeneratedDummyTable()
{
FontBase defaultFont = FontsRepository.TimesRoman;
FontFamily fontFamily = new FontFamily(defaultFont.Name);
int index = 0;
List<Report> reports = ReportFactory.Generate(20);
while (index < reports.Count)
{
// Build table for this page
var table = new Telerik.Windows.Documents.Fixed.Model.Editing.Tables.Table();
table.LayoutType = TableLayoutType.AutoFit;
// Header row
var headerRow = table.Rows.AddTableRow();
string[] headers = new[] {
"Job Number", "Description", "Location", "Document Name",
"Document Category", "CB Number", "Name", "Document Type",
"Status", "Pages", "Status Date"
};
double[] preferredWidths = new double[] {
80, 300, 120, 160, 120, 80, 120, 100, 80, 50, 100
};
for (int h = 0; h < headers.Length; h++)
{
var headerCell = headerRow.Cells.AddTableCell();
headerCell.PreferredWidth = preferredWidths[h];
var headerBlock = headerCell.Blocks.AddBlock();
headerBlock.TextProperties.Font = defaultFont;
headerBlock.InsertText(headers[h]);
// Header cell styling
headerCell.Background = new RgbColor(220, 230, 241);
headerCell.Borders = new TableCellBorders(
new Border(1, new RgbColor(0, 0, 0)), // Top
new Border(1, new RgbColor(0, 0, 0)), // Right
new Border(1, new RgbColor(0, 0, 0)), // Bottom
new Border(1, new RgbColor(0, 0, 0)) // Left
);
}
while (index < reports.Count)
{
var reportItem = reports[index];
var row = table.Rows.AddTableRow();
var c0 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c0.PreferredWidth = preferredWidths[0];
Block block1 = c0.Blocks.AddBlock();
block1.TextProperties.Font = defaultFont;
block1.InsertText(reportItem.JobNumber ?? string.Empty);
var c1 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c1.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.Description ?? string.Empty);
var c2 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c2.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.Location ?? string.Empty);
var c3 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c3.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.DocName ?? string.Empty);
var c4 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c4.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.DocCategory ?? string.Empty);
var c5 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c5.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.CBNumber ?? string.Empty);
var c6 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c6.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.Name ?? string.Empty);
var c7 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c7.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.DocType ?? string.Empty);
var c8 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c8.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.Status ?? string.Empty);
var c9 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c9.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.Pages ?? string.Empty);
var c10 = row.Cells.AddTableCell();
c10.Blocks.AddBlock().InsertText(fontFamily, reportItem.StatusDate?.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") ?? string.Empty);
for (var i = 0; i < row.Cells.Count; i++)
{
var cell = row.Cells[i];
// Alternating row colors
cell.Background = (index % 2 == 0) ? new RgbColor(255, 255, 255) : new RgbColor(245, 245, 245);
cell.PreferredWidth = preferredWidths[i];
}
index++;
}
RadFixedDocument fixedDocument = new RadFixedDocument();
RadFixedPage contentPage = fixedDocument.Pages.AddPage();
contentPage.Size = new Size(1400, 800);
FixedContentEditor editor = new FixedContentEditor(contentPage);
editor.TextProperties.FontSize = 10;
editor.TextProperties.Font = defaultFont;
editor.Position.Translate(10, 10);
editor.DrawTable(table);
string outputFilePath = "output.pdf";
File.WriteAllBytes(outputFilePath, new PdfFormatProvider().Export(fixedDocument, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)));
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo() { FileName = outputFilePath, UseShellExecute = true });
}
}