The grouping feature affects the display and is not intended to work with some other features of Spread that also work with the display of the spreadsheet. When grouping happens, the data model is changed and a new model (the GroupDataModel) is used. Many features are not affected by grouping at all, but some features, listed below, are not intended to operate with grouping. In general, if the feature involves the appearance or interactivity of the sheet or column, check the list to see if it is affected by grouping.

Some formatting features can work with grouping, but need to be applied after grouping occurs. If you need to format cells (colors, locked, and so on), you must apply the formatting after grouping.

After grouping rows, you should not change the column count and row count. The GroupDataModel does not support changing the column or row count.

To add or remove columns or rows, you need to call the original data model methods. You can access the original data model using the TargetModel property of the GroupDataModel class. The type of TargetModel property varies depending on the level of grouping. Therefore, you can fetch the level of the TargetModel property at which it becomes of the DefaultSheetModel type.

The following example code demonstrates how to use the TargetModel property in a GroupDataModel.

GroupDataModel groupDataModel = new GroupDataModel(fpSpread1_Sheet1.Models.Data);
while (groupDataModel.TargetModel is GroupDataModel)
{
  groupDataModel = (groupDataModel.TargetModel as GroupDataModel);
}
if(groupDataModel.TargetModel is DefaultSheetDataModel defaultSheetDataModel)
{
  // Perform your desired row or column updates
} 

Dim groupDataModel As GroupDataModel = New GroupDataModel(fpSpread1_Sheet1.Models.Data)
While TypeOf groupDataModel.TargetModel Is GroupDataModel
   groupDataModel = TryCast(groupDataModel.TargetModel, GroupDataModel)
End While
Dim defaultSheetDataModel As DefaultSheetDataModel = Nothing
If CSharpImpl.__Assign(defaultSheetDataModel, TryCast(groupDataModel.TargetModel, DefaultSheetDataModel)) IsNot Nothing Then
   ' Perform your desired row or column updates
End If

The following features can work with grouping or are not affected by grouping:

• Grouping and hidden columns work together.
• The grouping feature affects only the visual display. Such things as export and printing are not affected.
• Grouping and input maps or action maps work together.

Features That Do Not Interoperate with Grouping

These features do not interoperate with grouping in Spread.