The report with several columns: How to reprint group headers in each column? - jasper-reports

Question

I'm creating a report with 2 columns per page with JasperReports 4.7.1.
When the records belonging to a group span across multiple columns, I want to print the header not only at the beginning of the group but also at the start of each column.
Using Reprint Header (isReprintHeaderOnEachPage property) in group properties, header can be printed at the start of each page. But I still couldn't find a way to do the same at the start of a new column.
How can I achieve this?
Screenshot of the current report page...
What I want to achieve (note the headers in the 2nd column)...

Answer 1

I had a similar issue to yours and I managed to solve it by adding a ColumnHeader band and only displaying it for the 2nd column of my 2-column report.
It is important to have isReprintHeaderOnEachPage set to true and the height of the groupHeader and columnHeader to be the same for my solution to work.
Here is the relevant code (of course you replace "telephoneNumber" with your appropriate group expression:
<group name="telephoneNumberGroup" isStartNewPage="true" isReprintHeaderOnEachPage="true">
<groupExpression><![CDATA[$F{telephoneNumber}]]></groupExpression>
<groupHeader>
<band height="17">
<textField>
<reportElement positionType="Float" x="5" y="0" width="170" height="15" uuid="5e8b892b-f907-4907-9c6d-4419e57325e5"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font fontName="Arial" size="6" isBold="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{telephoneNumber}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</groupHeader>
</group>
<columnHeader>
<band height="17">
<printWhenExpression><![CDATA[$V{COLUMN_NUMBER} == 2]]></printWhenExpression>
<textField>
<reportElement positionType="Float" x="5" y="0" width="170" height="15" uuid="5e8b892b-f907-4907-9c6d-4419e57325e5"/>
<textElement verticalAlignment="Middle">
<font fontName="Arial" size="6" isBold="true"/>
</textElement>
<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{telephoneNumber}]]></textFieldExpression>
</textField>
</band>
</columnHeader>