iText API– Creating table in PDF using Java

By Atul Rai | Last Updated: July 16, 2018 Previous       Next

In this tutorial, we will discuss how to create a table in the PDF document using iText API. iText is an open source and widely used for creating the PDF document in Java application/program.

1- Download iText JAR

If you are Maven user, you can directly add the dependency in your pom.xml.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
    <artifactId>itextpdf</artifactId>
    <version>5.5.10</version>
</dependency>

Note: This may throws the DocumentException in any problem occurs while creating the Document. You need to handle it by using try and catch block or declare throws in method.

2- Create Table in PDF

iText API example to show you how to create a table in PDF file, and write data into it.

package org.websparrow.itext;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import com.itextpdf.text.BaseColor;
import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.PageSize;
import com.itextpdf.text.Phrase;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class CreateTableInPDF {
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		try {
			// creation of the document with a certain size and certain margins
			Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 20, 20, 20, 20);

			// creating table and set the column width
			PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(3);
			float widths[] = { 3, 6, 3 };
			table.setWidths(widths);
			table.setHeaderRows(1);

			// add cell of table - header cell
			PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Emp Id"));
			cell.setBackgroundColor(new BaseColor(0, 173, 239));
			table.addCell(cell);

			cell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Emp Name"));
			cell.setBackgroundColor(new BaseColor(0, 173, 239));
			table.addCell(cell);

			cell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Salary"));
			cell.setBackgroundColor(new BaseColor(0, 173, 239));
			table.addCell(cell);

			Phrase ph;
			// looping the table cell for adding definition
			for (int ctr = 1; ctr <= 4; ctr++) {

				cell = new PdfPCell();
				ph = new Phrase("WS-" + ctr);
				cell.addElement(ph);
				table.addCell(cell);

				cell = new PdfPCell();
				ph = new Phrase("Sandeep Sharma " + ctr);
				cell.addElement(ph);
				table.addCell(cell);

				cell = new PdfPCell();
				ph = new Phrase("2000" + ctr);
				cell.addElement(ph);
				table.addCell(cell);
			}

			// write the all into a file and save it.
			PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream("EmployeeData.pdf"));
			document.open();
			document.add(table);
			document.close();
			System.out.println("Successfull.");
		} catch (DocumentException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

Output:

If you see the Successful message in your console that means you have successfully created the PDF document. To check it go to the file location and here is the result.