Using the Column Header Band in Report Designer

Using the Column Header Band in Report Designer

The articles in this section of the Knowledge Base involve working with Columns for display in multi-column reports. To learn more about Columns and how to access the Report Designer, see Creating Multi-Column Reports in Report Designer. This article explains the function of a Column Header Band.


Fig. 01 – Column Header Band

Generally, Header Bands are used for displaying Data Headers, but there is a Column Header Band for use with Reports that have multiple columns. Like the standard Header band, The Column Header band is output only once, but the components in the band are repeated above every column. It applies only to the columns positioned in the Data band. Note how the red lines that denote the location of columns and column gaps, in Figure 02, are in both the Data Band AND the Column Header Band.


Fig. 02 – Report Template – Column Header Band – Example

When this report is rendered, it has three columns along with three column headers (Subassembly Name). See Figure 03.


Fig. 03 – Automatic Column Header Insertion

Print if Empty Property

If there is not enough data to fill all of the columns, the column header above the empty column is not displayed.


Fig. 04 – Two Data Items in a Three Column Report

If you would like all of the column headers, even headers for empty columns, to be displayed, use the Print if Empty property of the Column Header band.


Fig. 05 – Print if Empty Property

With the Print if Empty property set to true, the report is rendered with the Column Header above the empty column.


Fig. 06 – Report with Print if Empty set to True

When the Min Rows in Column property of Down then Across mode is used, Report Designer cannot indicate the exact number of rows. When using the Min Rows in Column property, set the  Print if Empty property to true.

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