HOWTO: Do a MergeCells with FlexGrid or Hierarchical FlexGrid

• Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0

SUMMARY

The MergeCells property determines whether cells with the same contents should be grouped in a single cell spanning multiple rows or columns. The different values available for MergeCells let you specify how the cell merging should be handled. Setting MergeCells to a value other than zero enables cell merging. To have the FlexGrid or Hierarchical FlexGrid perform the merge, you must set the MergeCol or MergeRow property to True for each Column or Row you want to merge.

MORE INFORMATION

This example uses the FlexGrid control. You can substitute the Hierarchical FlexGrid for the FlexGrid control in this sample.

When MergeRow or MergeColumn are True, the merged row or column may not merge correctly with a fixed column or row. The sample project in this article demonstrates this problem. Merging works best with non-fixed columns and rows.

This sample demonstrates merging with MergeCells set to FlexMergeFree. This allows merging on any row or column that has the MergeRow or MergeCol property set to True.

Steps to Create Sample Project

1. Create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.



2. Click Components on the Projects menu to open the Components dialog box. On the Controls tab, select Microsoft FlexGrid Control and click OK.



3. Place a FlexGrid control and four CommandButtons on Form1.



4. Add the following code to code window for Form1:




      Option Explicit
      Dim iFixedRows As Integer
      Dim iFixedCols As Integer

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
        iFixedCols = iFixedCols + 1
        If iFixedCols > MSFlexGrid1.Cols - 1 Then
          iFixedCols = MSFlexGrid1.Cols - 1
          MsgBox "No more columns to fix"
        Else
          MSFlexGrid1.FixedCols = iFixedCols
        End If
      End Sub

      Private Sub Command2_Click()
        iFixedCols = iFixedCols - 1
        If iFixedCols < 0 Then
          iFixedCols = 0
          MsgBox "No more Columns to unfix"
        Else
          MSFlexGrid1.FixedCols = iFixedCols
        End If
      End Sub

      Private Sub Command3_Click()
        iFixedRows = iFixedRows + 1
        If iFixedRows > MSFlexGrid1.Rows - 1 Then
          iFixedRows = MSFlexGrid1.Rows - 1
          MsgBox "No more rows to fix"
        Else
          MSFlexGrid1.FixedRows = iFixedRows
        End If
      End Sub

      Private Sub Command4_Click()
        iFixedRows = iFixedRows - 1
        If iFixedRows< 0 Then
          iFixedRows = 0
          MsgBox "No more rows to unfix"
        Else
          MSFlexGrid1.FixedRows = iFixedRows
        End If
      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_Load()
        Command1.Caption = "Increment fixed Columns"
        Command2.Caption = "Decrease fixed Columns"
        Command3.Caption = "Increment fixed Rows"
        Command4.Caption = "Decrease fixed Rows"

        FillFlexGrid 'call sub that puts data into grid

        iFixedRows = MSFlexGrid1.FixedRows
        iFixedCols = MSFlexGrid1.FixedCols
      End Sub

      Private Sub FillFlexGrid()
        Dim sEntry As String
        With MSFlexGrid1
          .Cols = 5 'set the number of columns
          ' Set FixedRows to 0 so you can use AddItem. You can't
          ' use AddItem with a FixedRow. You have to use the Text property
          .FixedRows = 0
          .MergeCells = flexMergeFree 'Set the MergeCells property.
          .Font.Name = "fixedsys"
          .Font.Size = 8
          .Row = 0
          .Col = 0
          .ColWidth(0) = 1750

          ' Add some data to the grid using AddItem.
          sEntry = "Region" & vbTab & "Region" & vbTab & "Employee"
          .AddItem sEntry, 0
          sEntry = "Northwest" & vbTab & "Bats" & vbTab & "Bats"
          .AddItem sEntry, 1
          sEntry = "Northwest" & vbTab & "Whahoos"
          .AddItem sEntry, 2
          sEntry = "Northwest" & vbTab & "Whahoos"
          .AddItem sEntry, 3
          sEntry = "Northwest" & vbTab & "Sharks"
          .AddItem sEntry, 4
          sEntry = "Southeast" & vbTab & "Panthers"
          .AddItem sEntry, 5
          sEntry = "Southeast" & vbTab & "Panthers"
          .AddItem sEntry, 6
          sEntry = "Southeast" & vbTab & "Desktops"
          .AddItem sEntry, 7
          sEntry = "Southeast" & vbTab & "Desktops"
          .AddItem sEntry, 8
          sEntry = "Mid-Atlantic" & vbTab & "VSx7"
          .AddItem sEntry, 9
          sEntry = "Mid-Atlantic" & vbTab & "VSx7"
          .AddItem sEntry, 10

          ' Set the rows and columns you want to merge.
          .MergeCol(0) = True 'First Column in grid
          .MergeCol(1) = True 'Second Column in grid

          .MergeRow(0) = True 'First Row in Grid
          .MergeRow(1) = True 'Second Row in Grid
          ' Set the fixed columns and rows.
          .FixedCols = 1
          .FixedRows = 1
        End With
      End Sub
 

5. Save and run the project. Use the CommandButtons to add or remove fixed columns or rows to see how they affect a merged column or row.

© Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Brian Combs, Microsoft Corporation

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbCtrl kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpVB
Version : WINDOWS:5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto