XSL-FO Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Table of Rows and Columns

∟Table Column and Row Merge or Span

This section provides a tutorial example on how to merge or span table columns and rows with table-cell[@number-columns-spanned] and/or table-cell[@number-rows-spanned] attributes.

If you want to merge table cells, you need to use table-cell[@number-columns-spanned] and/or table-cell[@number-rows-spanned] attributes, as shown in the following XSL-FO example, Table-Column-and-Row-Span.fo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Table-Column-and-Row-Span.fo
 - Copyright (c) 2006 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
-->
<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
 <fo:layout-master-set>
  <fo:simple-page-master master-name="page" 
   margin="0.1in" page-height="5in" page-width="5in">
   <fo:region-body region-name="body" background-color="#eeffff"/>
  </fo:simple-page-master>
 </fo:layout-master-set>
 <fo:page-sequence master-reference="page">
  <fo:flow flow-name="body">
<fo:block>Table with column and row spanned:</fo:block>
<fo:table>
 <fo:table-column border-width="2px" border-style="solid"
  column-width="20%"/>
 <fo:table-column border-width="2px" border-style="solid"
  column-width="30%"/>
 <fo:table-column border-width="2px" border-style="solid"
  column-width="30%"/>
 <fo:table-column border-width="2px" border-style="solid"
  column-width="20%"/>
 <fo:table-body>
  <fo:table-row border-width="2px" border-style="solid">
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt" background-color="#ffddff">
    <fo:block text-align="center">Logo</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt" background-color="#ffffdd"
    number-columns-spanned="3">
    <fo:block text-align="center">Top Menu</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
  </fo:table-row>
  <fo:table-row border-width="2px" border-style="solid">
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt" background-color="#ffffdd"
    number-rows-spanned="2" display-align="center">
    <fo:block text-align="center">Side Menu</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt">
    <fo:block text-align="center"
     line-height="500%">World News</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt">
    <fo:block text-align="center"
     line-height="500%">Financial</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt" background-color="#ffddff"
    number-rows-spanned="2" display-align="center">
    <fo:block 
     text-align="center">List of Ads</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
  </fo:table-row>
  <fo:table-row border-width="2px" border-style="solid">
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt">
    <fo:block text-align="center"
     line-height="500%">Technology</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt">
    <fo:block text-align="center"
     line-height="500%">Sports</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
  </fo:table-row>
  <fo:table-row border-width="2px" border-style="solid">
   <fo:table-cell padding="8pt" background-color="#dddddd" 
    number-columns-spanned="4">
    <fo:block text-align="center">Footer</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
  </fo:table-row>
 </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
  </fo:flow>
 </fo:page-sequence>
</fo:root>

If you process this example XSL-FO document with Apache FOP, you will see a table with some cells merged:

Notice that table-cell[@display-align="center"] attribute is used to control the vertical alignment of cell content.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of XSL-FO

 Apache™ FOP (Formatting Objects Processor)

 RenderX XEP as an XSL-FO Tool

 Introduction of Area Model

 XSL-FO Document Basics and Examples

 Page Layout Masters

 Block-Level Formatting Objects

 Inline-Level Formatting Objects

 Including Graphics in XSL-FO document

►Table of Rows and Columns

 Table Formatting Object Tree

 Table Cell Borders Collapsed and Separated

 Table Row Borders and Column Borders

 Table Column Headers and Footers

 Table and Column Width Control

►Table Column and Row Merge or Span

 Table with Caption

 List, Item, Label, and Body

 Floating Blocks - "float" and "footnote"

 Hyperlinks, Table of Contents and Indexes

 Headers and Footers using "static-content"

 Font Attributes and Font Families

 Apache FOP Font Configurations

 RenderX XEP Font Configurations

 Converting HTML to PDF

 References

 Full Version in PDF/ePUB

Table Column and Row Merge or Span - Updated in 2023, by Herong Yang