How to invoke a page break for nested tables?

When my inner table has more rows, the table splits on the first page, and starts the inner table on the second page.

I have one PdfPTable with one column. One page fits 50 rows. If I add some text data to table (for an example, 300 rows), the report looks fine. When I nest a PdfPTable with a limited number of rows into a cell, all works fine too:

/--------
20 string rows
inner table (20 rows)
10 string rows
/-------
...additional rows

But, when my inner table has more rows, the table splits on the first page, and starts the inner table on the second page:

/---------
20 string rows
whitespace for 30 rows
/---------
inner table (50 rows from 90)
/---------
inner table (40 rows from 90)
..additional data

I need this:

/---------
20 string rows
inner table (30 rows from 90)
/---------
inner table (50 rows from 90)
/---------
inner table (10 rows from 80)
..additional data

Posted on StackOverflow on Nov 28, 2012 by degr

Please take a look at the NestedTables2 example. In this example, we tell iText that it's OK to split cells as soon as a row doesn't fit on a page:

Nested table

This is not the default: by default, iText will try to keep a row intact by forwarding it to the next page. Only if the row doesn't fit the page, the row will be split.

Changing the default involves adding a single line to your code. That line is called: table.setSplitLate(false);

This is the full method that created the PDF shown in the screen shot:

public void createPdf(String dest) throws IOException, DocumentException {
    Document document = new Document();
    PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(dest));
    document.open();
    PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(2);
    table.setSplitLate(false);
    table.setWidths(new int[]{1, 15});
    for (int i = 1; i