How to add text in a created table in a richtextbox?

Categories: C#

How to add text in a created table in a richtextbox?

In my previous article How to create Table InRichTextBox using C#, I explained in detail how can we insert a table in richtextbox. After that, I was seeing questions from developers that How to add text in a created table in a RichTextBox? This motivated me to write this post in which I will try to help you with the solution to insert data in rich text box table.

If you haven’t yet seen my other posts on topic table in RichTextBox ,read them also here
Table in RichTextBox With Text Wrap In Columns
Display rtf file correctly In RichTextBox

By now, you were able to create a table in rich text box control. If you only need the application user to enter data in the created table, it is possible anyway.What if, you need to create a table with data in RichTextBoxcontrol.Keep reading, examples given below will help you to programmatically populate data in the table created in RichTextBoxin C#.

Add text in a created table in a RichTextBox control

Two examples will be explained. First one will populate data one by one at the time of table cell creation. The second example will populate table and data in a loop from parameters passed through the method call.

Example 1: Insert text in a created table in a RichTextBox control

This sample is to demonstrate how we can populate cells with hard coded data.You can visit Sample 2 below to understand how to fetch data from a data table and populate the table in Rich TextBox control.

private static String InsertTableInRichTextBox()
{
      StringBuilder sringTableRtf = new StringBuilder();

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"{\rtf1 ");

      //Prepare the header Row
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\trowd");

      //A cell with width 1000.
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx1000");

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl   ID");

      //Another cell with width 1000.Endpoint at 2000(which is 1000+1000).
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx2000");

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cell    Name");

      //Another cell with width 1000.Ending at 3000 (which is 2000+1000)
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx3000");

      sringTableRtf.AppendFormat(@"\cell    City");

      //Another cell with width 1000.End at 4000 (which is 3000+1000)
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx4000");

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cell    Country");

      //Add the created row
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl \cell \row");

      //Add 3 data Rows.Give proper padding space between data.Notice the gap after cell.
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl   1" + @"\cell    Raj" + @"\cell    Bangalore" + @"\cell    India" + @"\row");
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl   2" + @"\cell    Peter" + @"\cell    Mumbai" + @"\cell   India" + @"\row");
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl   3" + @"\cell    Chris" + @"\cell    Delhi"+ @"\cell   India" + @"\row");

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\pard");

      sringTableRtf.Append(@"}");

      //PopulateTable(sringTableRtf);
      return sringTableRtf.ToString();
}

The click of the button will create the table with data in cells. In button click event Invoke the InsertTableInRichTextBox function and assign the return string to the RichTextBox control. Update button click event as below.

privatevoidbtnCreateTable_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    //Insert Table in RichTextBox Control by setting .Rtf as the string returned.
    //Set the RichTextBox width to fit the table completely.
    this.richTextBox.Rtf = InsertTableInRichTextBox();
}

Output is,

But, Most of the cases, we need to populate RichTextBox table with data given in some format rather than hard coding cell data.Next example explains how we can fetch data from a data table and display it in a table created in RichTextBox control.

Example 2: Add text in a created table in a RichTextBox control | Insert DataTable data to RichTextBox table

Read further on to understand how to insert data from a DataTable into a created table in RichTextBox control. Overload the above sample method as below and update the button click event accordingly.

// Method to create a table format string with data from a DataTable.

private static String InsertTableInRichTextBox(DataTabled tbl,int width)
{
     //Since too much string appending go for string builder
     StringBuilder sringTableRtf = newStringBuilder();

     //beginning of rich text format,dont customize this begining line
     sringTableRtf.Append(@"{\rtf1 ");

     //create 5 rows with 3 cells each
     intcellWidth;

     //Start the Row
     sringTableRtf.Append(@"\trowd");

     //Populate the Table header from DataTable column headings.
     for (int j = 0; j <dtbl.Columns.Count; j++)
     {
         //A cell with width 1000.
         sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx" + ((j+1) * width).ToString());

         if (j == 0)
         sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl  " + dtbl.Columns[j].ColumnName);
         else
         sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cell   " + dtbl.Columns[j].ColumnName);
      }

      //Add the table header row
      sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl \cell \row");

      //Loop to populate the table cell data from DataTable
      for (inti = 0; i<dtbl.Rows.Count; i++)
      {
          //Start the Row
          sringTableRtf.Append(@"\trowd");

          for (int j = 0; j <dtbl.Columns.Count; j++)
          {
             cellWidth = (j+1) * width;

             //A cell with width 1000.
             sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cellx" + cellWidth.ToString());

             if (j == 0)
             sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl  " + dtbl.Rows[i][j].ToString());
             else
             sringTableRtf.Append(@"\cell   " + dtbl.Rows[i][j].ToString());
           }

           //Insert data row
           sringTableRtf.Append(@"\intbl \cell \row");
       }

       sringTableRtf.Append(@"\pard");
       sringTableRtf.Append(@"}");

       //convert the string builder to string
       return sringTableRtf.ToString();
}

In button click event, a dummy DataTable created and passed as a parameter along with cell width.

private void btnCreateTable_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    //Create a DataTable with four columns.
    DataTable dtbl = new DataTable();
    dtbl.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));
    dtbl.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));
    dtbl.Columns.Add("City", typeof(string));
    dtbl.Columns.Add("Country", typeof(string));

    //Here we add five DataRows.
    dtbl.Rows.Add(1, "Ram", "Bangalore", "India");
    dtbl.Rows.Add(2, "Manoj", "Mumbai", "India");
    dtbl.Rows.Add(3, "Peter", "Chennai", "India");
    dtbl.Rows.Add(4, "Eric", "Delhi", "India");

    //Insert Table in RichTextBox Control by setting .Rtf as the string returned.
    //Set the RichTextBox width to fit the table completely,
    this.richTextBox.Rtf = InsertTableInRichTextBox(dtbl,2000);
}

On execution, this will display result as,

Summary:
The above examples are simple solutions from my side. There can be other alternate best solutions. Share your thoughts and comments. If you have better solutions to add text in a created table in richtextbox, post it in the comment section below.

Happy Coding!

Rajeev