Grid

Grid[{{expr11,expr12,…},{expr21,expr22,…},…}]

is an object that formats with the exprij arranged in a two-dimensional grid.

Details and Options

  • In a notebook, you can enter expressions in a two-dimensional layout by using to add columns and to add rows. By default, this layout evaluates to a nested list. You can make a Grid that preserves the layout by using Grid[layout].
  • You can use to move to the next placeholder in a Grid. moves out of the whole Grid.
  • Grid[…] formats as a grid in StandardForm and TraditionalForm.
  • In InputForm, Grid[…] formats literally as Grid[…].
  • Normal[grid] extracts the list of lists that make up a grid.
  • The exprij can be expressions of any kind, including graphics and controls.
  • You can enter text in an element of a Grid by giving it as a string. You can use Text["string"] or Style["string","style"] to specify a particular style.
  • The listi in Grid[{list1,list2,…}] do not all need to be the same length; there will be empty space in the grid at the ends of shorter rows.
  • You can specify that an element e should span multiple positions in a grid using, for example, Grid[{{e,SpanFromLeft,SpanFromLeft},…}].
  • The following specify that a particular position should be spanned:
  • SpanFromLeftspan from left
    SpanFromAbovespan from above
    SpanFromBothspan from both left and above
  • A particular element can span both multiple rows and multiple columns, by having a rectangular section of the array with the form {{e,SpanFromLeft,SpanFromLeft,…}, {SpanFromAbove,SpanFromBoth,SpanFromBoth,…},…}.
  • In a notebook, you can combine selected elements in a grid to make a single spanning element using the Make Spanning menu item.
  • The following options can be given:
  • Alignment {Center,Baseline}horizontal and vertical alignment of items
    AllowedDimensions Automaticrestrictions on number of rows or columns
    AutoDeleteFalsewhether to remove the grid structure if only one item remains
    Background Nonewhat background colors to use
    BaselinePosition Automaticwhat to align with a surrounding text baseline
    BaseStyle{}base style specifications for the grid
    DefaultElement""what element to insert in an empty item
    Dividers {}where to draw divider lines in the grid
    Frame Nonewhere to draw frames in the grid
    FrameStyle Automaticstyle to use for frames
    ItemSize Automaticwidth and height of each item
    ItemStyle Nonestyles for columns and rows
    Spacings Automatichorizontal and vertical spacings
  • Common settings for Frame include:
  • Noneno frame
    Trueframe around the whole grid
    Allframe around every item in the grid
    {All, False}put a frame at every horizontal position (column lines)
    {False, All}put a frame at every vertical position (row lines)
  • Settings for the options Alignment, Background, Frame, ItemSize, and ItemStyle can be given as follows to apply separately to different items:
  • specapply spec to all items
    {specx}apply specx at successive horizontal positions
    {specx,specy}apply speck at successive horizontal and vertical positions
    {specx,specy,rules}also allow explicit rules for individual i,j elements
  • The speck can have the following forms:
  • {s1,s2,…,sn}use s1 through sn, then use defaults
    {{c}}use c in all cases
    {{c1,c2}}alternate between c1 and c2
    {{c1,c2,…}}cycle through all ci
    {s,{c}}use s, then repeatedly use c
    {s1,{c},sn}use s1, then repeatedly use c, but use sn at the end
    {s1,s2,…,{c1,c2,…},sm,…,sn}use the first sequence of si at the beginning, then cyclically use the ci, then use the last sequence of si at the end
    {s1,s2,…,{},sm,…,sn}use the first sequence of si at the beginning and the last sequence at the end
    {i1->v1,i2->v2,…}specify what to use at positions ik
    {spec,rules}use rules to override specifications in spec
  • With settings of the form {s1,s2,…,{…},sm,…,sn}, if there are more si specified than items across the grid, si from the beginning are used for the first items, and ones from the end are used for the last items.
  • Settings such as Alignment, Background, and Frame can effectively be specified for individual items in the grid using Item.
  • With the default setting ItemSize->Automatic, Grid will break elements across multiple lines if necessary.
  • Grid will not change the size of graphics or other objects that have explicit ImageSize settings.
  • For a grid with n items in a particular direction, Dividers and Spacings can specify settings for the n+1 gaps between elements, starting before the first element and ending after the last element.
  • Settings for Dividers and Spacings can have the following forms:
  • specapply spec to all gaps between items
    {specx,specy}apply specx, specy to successive horizontal and vertical gaps
  • The speci can have the same forms as for Alignment, Background, and other item-oriented options.
  • The following settings can be used for BaselinePosition:
  • Axisaxis of the middle row in the grid
    Baselinebaseline of the middle row in the grid
    Bottombottom of the whole grid
    Centerhalfway from top to bottom
    Toptop of the whole grid
    {{i,j},pos}position pos in element i,j
    pos->refbaseline offset to make pos be aligned with ref
  • The BaselinePosition is by default taken to be Center->Axis.
  • The settings for BaseStyle are appended to the default style typically given by the "Grid" style in the current stylesheet.

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (3)

Display elements in a grid:

Put a frame around every element:

Use Text to format grid elements as text:

Scope  (43)

Elements in Grids  (5)

Grid can contain elements of any size:

Grid can contain graphics or any other expressions:

Grid can contain active controls:

Create a grid with a single row:

Grid can be used to format grids with no rows, empty rows, or ragged rows:

Frames and Grid Lines  (5)

Put a frame around the whole grid:

Put a frame around every element:

Draw all the frames in red:

Put a frame around the first row and column:

Draw different frames with different styles:

Put dividers at all horizontal positions:

Put dividers at all vertical positions:

Put dividers at the third horizontal and second vertical positions:

Spanning Elements  (3)

Make the element 4 span the column to its right:

Make it span three columns:

Make the element 2 span the row below it:

Make it span three rows:

Span throughout a 2×2 block:

Alignment  (2)

Align contents to the left:

Align contents to the right:

Styling  (22)

Background Colors  (13)

Draw the grid with a light blue background:

Make the first columns light blue and gray:

Make the first rows light blue and gray:

Make all rows except the first one gray:

Make the first and last rows light blue:

Use a repeating pattern for rows:

Make the first row gray, then a repeating pattern of none and light blue:

Highlight the final column:

Combine a final column highlight with a repeating row pattern:

Highlight a specific column using its column index:

Specify colors for the first two rows, and then additional rows using a column index:

Specify rows as a repeating pattern with an exception specified with its row index:

Make the first column and last column light blue:

Item Styles  (9)

Set the font color of the individual items to be red:

Specify a style for the first column:

Specify a style for the first row and column:

Specify a complex style for the first row:

Set all item contents to be blue, except for the first row:

Set all item contents to be blue, except for the first row:

Alternate styles by row:

Alternate complex styles by row:

Embed styling options with a particular grid item:

Spacing  (4)

Make each row and column just big enough to fit the items they contain:

Leave the same amount of space for all items:

Set the horizontal spacing between items:

Set the horizontal and vertical spacings:

Nested Grids  (2)

Grids can be nested:

Options  (36)

Alignment  (2)

Align elements around the center of the grid:

Align numbers on the decimal point:

AllowedDimensions  (1)

Create a grid that can have between 2 and 4 columns and between 3 and 5 rows:

Background  (7)

Draw the grid with a pink background:

Pink and gray backgrounds for the columns at the first and second horizontal positions:

An equivalent syntax:

Pink and gray backgrounds for the rows at the first and second vertical positions:

Alternating pink and gray backgrounds:

Alternating backgrounds with yellow superimposed in the first and last positions:

Blending of colors:

Set the background for specific items:

Set the background for a subregion of the grid:

BaselinePosition  (3)

Align the center of the grid with the baseline of surrounding text:

Align the bottom of the grid with the baseline:

Align a specific grid element with the baseline:

Dividers  (3)

Draw all interior dividers:

Draw a divider at every other horizontal position:

Include the final position:

Draw dividers with specified styles:

Frame  (4)

Frame the entire grid:

Frame all elements in the grid:

Frame specific elements:

Frame a region:

FrameStyle  (3)

FrameStyle supports a variety of graphics directives:

FrameStyle is applied to all sources of grid lines, including Dividers and Item:

Directives given with FrameStyle are combined with those specified elsewhere:

ItemSize  (4)

Make each item a fixed number of character-widths wide:

ItemSize->All makes all items the same size:

ItemSize->Automatic line-wraps textual items at the page width:

Prevent line-wrapping:

ItemStyle  (5)

Set one overall style for grid items:

Use Directive to wrap multiple style directives:

Use a style from the current stylesheet:

Style specific elements:

Style a region:

Spacings  (4)

Insert no additional space between rows or columns:

Insert no additional space between rows:

Specify spacing with numeric values:

Use different spacings at the first vertical divider:

Applications  (2)

A simple user interface layout:

Presenting tabular data:

Properties & Relations  (1)

The elements of a Grid can be extracted with Part:

Possible Issues  (2)

Styles given in a list will be interpreted as corresponding to successive columns or rows:

Directive groups styles into a single collective unit:

To span across both rows and columns requires appropriate use of SpanFromBoth:

Neat Examples  (3)

A visual design:

A Sudoku grid:

Create a random arrangement of spanning rows and columns:

Wolfram Research (2007), Grid, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html (updated 2012).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Grid, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html (updated 2012).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Grid." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2012. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Grid. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2024_grid, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Grid}", year="2012", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html}", note=[Accessed: 21-December-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2024_grid, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Grid}, year={2012}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Grid.html}, note=[Accessed: 21-December-2024 ]}