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Vertical Elasticity property

The Vertical Elasticity property specifies how the vertical size of the object may change at runtime to accommodate the objects or data within it:

The following figure illustrates how the Vertical Elasticity property is depicted in the Paper Layout view.

Horizontal Elasticity property in the Paper Layout view

Applies to

Layout objects

Values

Contract

The vertical size of the object decreases, if the formatted objects or data within it are short enough, but it cannot increase to a height greater than that shown in the Report Editor. Truncation of data may occur. (You can think of this value as meaning "only contract, do not expand.")

Expand

The vertical size of the object increases, if the formatted objects or data within it are tall enough, but it cannot decrease to a height less than that shown in the Report Editor. (You can think of this value as meaning "only expand, do not contract.")

Fixed

The height of the object is the same on each logical page, regardless of the size of the objects or data within it. Truncation of data may occur, as shown in the examples. The height of the object is defined to be the height defined in the Report Editor.

Variable

The object may expand or contract vertically to accommodate the objects or data within it (with no extra space), which means the height defined in the Report Editor has no effect on the object's height at runtime.

Default

Varies according to the object 

Required/Optional

Required

Restrictions

Caution: If the contents of an object exceed its defined height, its Vertical and Horizontal Elasticity determine whether the contents overflow onto the next page or are truncated. Images, drawings, and chart objects cannot overflow. See the rules below for details about images, drawings, and graphs.

The table below shows the combinations of objects and elasticity choices that cause overflow and truncation.   (Expand and Variable in the table apply if either the Vertical or Horizontal Elasticity is Expand or Variable.)

Object

Fixed/ Contract

Expand

Variable

repeating frame instances and frames (contents <= defined height)

no overflow

no overflow

no overflow

repeating frame instances and frames (contents > defined on the page height)

no overflow

overflow, if unable to fit on the page

overflow, if unable to fit on the page

fields and boilerplate (contents <= defined height)

no overflow

no overflow

no overflow

fields and boilerplate (contents > defined height)

truncate

Note: To avoid truncation, set the field or boilerplate's Vertical Elasticity to Variable and surround it with a frame that has Fixed Vertical Elasticity. Note also, that when truncation of text occurs, it occurs after the field or boilerplate text has been wrapped.

overflow, if unable to fit on the page

overflow, if unable to fit on the page

Images, Drawings, and Graphs

Page-Dependent Referencing

If a value to be displayed in the report output relies on the formatting of the report, then the field or boilerplate object that displays the value must have a Vertical and Horizontal Elasticity of Fixed. (This is sometimes referred to as page-dependent referencing.) If the elasticity is not fixed, Reports Builder will change it to be fixed at runtime.

A typical case of page-dependent referencing is a field that has a Source of &Total Logical Pages. The total number of logical pages cannot be determined until the entire report has been formatted. But Reports Builder must format the field before the end of the report and cannot wait until the report is completely formatted to determine how big to make the field. Consequently, the field's elasticity must be fixed, so that Reports Builder knows how much space to reserve for it before its source value is determined.

In page-dependent referencing, a field or boilerplate object's elasticity must be fixed because its source value depends on the formatting of the report:

Truncating data

If you want your data truncated, you should use the SQL SUBSTR function in your query. For example, if you want only the first four characters of a column, then use SUBSTR in your SELECT statement to retrieve only those characters from the database.

Examples

Example 1:   Vertical Elasticity set to Expand

Suppose that you have a field with the following characteristics:

Characteristic

Value

width in Report Editor 1 inch
Horizontal Elasticity property Fixed
height in Report Editor 2 inches
Vertical Elasticity property Expand

The figure below shows what the field might look like when formatted.   Note that the field always takes up at least two inches vertically and is always one inch wide. If the data takes more than one inch horizontally and two inches vertically, the field grows vertically to accommodate the data.

graphic depicting situation described above

Example 2:   Vertical Elasticity set to Variable

Suppose that you have a frame named M_2 with the following characteristics:

Characteristic

Value

width in Report Editor 5 inches
Horizontal Elasticity property Fixed
height in Report Editor 3 inches
Vertical Elasticity property Variable

Assume further that the Page Height for the report is thirteen inches. Because of the size of the objects within it, M_2 requires eight inches vertically to format. Another frame, called M_1, precedes M_2 on the logical page and takes up six inches.

The following figure shows how the frame might be formatted.

graphic depicting situation described above

Note that all of M_2 cannot fit on the first logical page. Because the Vertical Elasticity is Variable, the first six inches of M_2 are printed on the first logical page and the last two inches are printed on the second logical page. Had the Vertical Elasticity been Fixed, it would print 3 inches of M_2 on the first page, then 3 inches on the 2nd page in the same spot and so on as it was implicitly anchored to the top left corner of the body.   However if Page Protect was also set to Yes, all of M_2 would have printed on the second logical page.

See also

About layout defaulting