Merging and Unmerging Cells with C++

Aspose.Cells supports this feature and can also merge cells in a worksheet. You may unmerge, or split, the merged cells too. A merged cell’s cell reference is the reference for the top left cell in the original selected range.

Introduction

You don’t always want the same number of cells in every row or column. For example, you might want to put a title in a cell that spans several columns. Or, if creating an invoice, you might want fewer columns for the total. To make one cell from two or more cells, merge them. Microsoft Excel lets users select files and merge them to structure the spreadsheet the way they want.

Note that when cells are merged, only the data in the top left cells is retained. If there is data in the other cells in the range, this data is deleted. Formatting, likewise, is based on the reference cell so that when you merge cells, the formatting settings of the top left cell in the range are applied on the merged cell. When the cell is split, the new cells keep their original format settings.

Merging Cells in a Worksheet

Merging Cells in Microsoft Excel

The following steps describe how to merge cells in the worksheet using MS Excel.

1. Copy the data you want into the upper-leftmost cell within the range.
2. Select the cells you want to merge.
3. To merge cells in a row or column and center the cell contents, click Merge and Center icon on the Formatting toolbar.

Merging Cells with Aspose.Cells

The Aspose::Cells::Cells class has some useful methods for the task. For example, the method Merge() merges the cells into a single cell within a specified range.

The following example shows how to merge cells (C6:E7) in a worksheet.

#include <iostream>
#include "Aspose.Cells.h"
using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    // Source directory path
    U16String srcDir(u"..\\Data\\01_SourceDirectory\\");

    // Output directory path
    U16String outDir(u"..\\Data\\02_OutputDirectory\\");

    // Create a Workbook
    Workbook wbk;

    // Create a Worksheet and get the first sheet
    Worksheet worksheet = wbk.GetWorksheets().Get(0);

    // Create a Cells object to fetch all the cells
    Cells cells = worksheet.GetCells();

    // Merge some Cells (C6:E7) into a single C6 Cell
    cells.Merge(5, 2, 2, 3);

    // Input data into C6 Cell
    worksheet.GetCells().Get(5, 2).PutValue(u"This is my value");

    // Create a Style object to fetch the Style of C6 Cell
    Style style = worksheet.GetCells().Get(5, 2).GetStyle();

    // Create a Font object
    Font font = style.GetFont();

    // Set the name
    font.SetName(u"Times New Roman");

    // Set the font size
    font.SetSize(18);

    // Set the font color
    font.SetColor(Color::Blue());

    // Bold the text
    font.SetIsBold(true);

    // Make it italic
    font.SetIsItalic(true);

    // Set the background color of C6 Cell to Red
    style.SetForegroundColor(Color::Red());
    style.SetPattern(BackgroundType::Solid);

    // Apply the Style to C6 Cell
    worksheet.GetCells().Get(5, 2).SetStyle(style);

    // Save the Workbook
    wbk.Save(outDir + u"mergingcells.out.xls");

    std::cout << "Workbook saved successfully!" << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
}

Unmerging (Splitting) Merged Cells

Using Microsoft Excel

The following steps describe how to split merged cells using Microsoft Excel.

1. Select the merged cell. When cells have been combined, Merge and Center is selected on the Formatting toolbar.
2. Click Merge and Center on the Formatting toolbar.

Using Aspose.Cells

The class Aspose::Cells::Cells has a method named UnMerge() that splits the cells into their original state. The method unmerges the cells using the cell’s reference in the merged cell range.

The following example shows how to split the merged cells (C6). The example uses the file created in the previous example and splits the merged cells.

#include <iostream>
#include "Aspose.Cells.h"

using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    // Source directory path
    U16String srcDir(u"..\\Data\\01_SourceDirectory\\");

    // Output directory path
    U16String outDir(u"..\\Data\\02_OutputDirectory\\");

    // Path of input excel file
    U16String inputFilePath = srcDir + u"mergingcells.xls";

    // Path of output excel file
    U16String outputFilePath = outDir + u"unmergingcells.out.xls";

    // Create a Workbook and open the excel file
    Workbook wbk(inputFilePath);

    // Get the first worksheet
    Worksheet worksheet = wbk.GetWorksheets().Get(0);

    // Get the Cells object to fetch all the cells
    Cells cells = worksheet.GetCells();

    // Unmerge the cells
    cells.UnMerge(5, 2, 2, 3);

    // Save the file
    wbk.Save(outputFilePath);

    std::cout << "Cells unmerged successfully!" << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
}

Advance topics

• Detect Merged Cells in a Worksheet