This is a very interesting topic, as Qt doesn't provide such a feature, but it can be implemented.
The following example is far from perfect, I'll list its main pros/cons.
Pros
- it works ;-)
- changing horizontal header labels automatically updates the header height
- supports horizontal scrolling "over" the last item position (if the table view is smaller than its contents, the horizontal scrollbar allows to see the full header text)
- it works :-D
Cons
- sections are fixed
- sections are not movable
- QAbstractItemView.ScrollPerPixel is mandatory for the horizontal scroll mode in this implementation. Qt's ScrollPerItem mode is a bit complex, and has some issues if it's not overrided with huge care. This doesn't mean that it's not possible to use that mode, but it requires a lot of efforts, possibly by carefully reading and understanding the source code of both QTableView and QAbstractItemView. Long story short: ScrollPerItem works until you reach the maximum value of the horizontal scrollbar; at that point, the view will try to resize and adapt its viewport and scrollbar value/range, and the last header labels will be "cut out".
- if all horizontal columns are visible (meaning that the items wouldn't require horizontal scrolling), the last horizontal headers are not completely shown, since the horizontal scroll bar is not required.
I think that it should be possible to support all header features (custom/stretchable section size, movable sections, item scroll, etc.), but it would require a very deep reimplementation process of both QTableView and QHeaderView methods.
Anyhow, that's the result I've got so far, which supports scrolling, painting, and basic mouse interaction (section highlight on click).
Example screenshot:
Scrolled (near the right edge) screenshot:
Table sized slightly after the right edge of the last horizontal column:
Example code
import sys
from math import sqrt, sin, acos, hypot, degrees, radians
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets
class AngledHeader(QtWidgets.QHeaderView):
borderPen = QtGui.QColor(0, 190, 255)
labelBrush = QtGui.QColor(255, 212, 0)
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtWidgets.QHeaderView.__init__(self, QtCore.Qt.Horizontal, parent)
self.setSectionResizeMode(self.Fixed)
self.setDefaultSectionSize(sqrt((self.fontMetrics().height() + 4)** 2 *2))
self.setSectionsClickable(True)
self.setDefaultSectionSize(int(sqrt((self.fontMetrics().height() + 4)** 2 *2)))
self.setMaximumHeight(100)
# compute the ellipsis size according to the angle; remember that:
# 1. if the angle is not 45 degrees, you'll need to compute this value
# using trigonometric functions according to the angle;
# 2. we assume ellipsis is done with three period characters, so we can
# "half" its size as (usually) they're painted on the bottom line and
# they are large enough, allowing us to show as much as text is possible
self.fontEllipsisSize = int(hypot(*[self.fontMetrics().height()] * 2) * .5)
self.setSectionsClickable(True)
def sizeHint(self):
# compute the minimum height using the maximum header label "hypotenuse"'s
hint = QtWidgets.QHeaderView.sizeHint(self)
count = self.count()
if not count:
return hint
fm = self.fontMetrics()
width = minSize = self.defaultSectionSize()
# set the minimum width to ("hypotenuse" * sectionCount) + minimumHeight
# at least, ensuring minimal horizontal scroll bar interaction
hint.setWidth(width * count + self.minimumHeight())
maxDiag = maxWidth = maxHeight = 1
for s in range(count):
if self.isSectionHidden(s):
continue
# compute the diagonal of the text's bounding rect,
# shift its angle by 45° to get the minimum required
# height
rect = fm.boundingRect(
str(self.model().headerData(s, QtCore.Qt.Horizontal)) + ' ')
# avoid math domain errors for empty header labels
diag = max(1, hypot(rect.width(), rect.height()))
if diag > maxDiag:
maxDiag = diag
maxWidth = max(1, rect.width())
maxHeight = max(1, rect.height())
# get the angle of the largest boundingRect using the "Law of cosines":
# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_cosines
angle = degrees(acos(
(maxDiag ** 2 + maxWidth ** 2 - maxHeight ** 2) /
(2. * maxDiag * maxWidth)
))
# compute the minimum required height using the angle found above
minSize = max(minSize, sin(radians(angle + 45)) * maxDiag)
hint.setHeight(min(self.maximumHeight(), minSize))
return hint
def mousePressEvent(self, event):
width = self.defaultSectionSize()
start = self.sectionViewportPosition(0)
rect = QtCore.QRect(0, 0, width, -self.height())
transform = QtGui.QTransform().translate(0, self.height()).shear(-1, 0)
for s in range(self.count()):
if self.isSectionHidden(s):
continue
if transform.mapToPolygon(
rect.translated(s * width + start, 0)).containsPoint(
event.pos(), QtCore.Qt.WindingFill):
self.sectionPressed.emit(s)
return
def paintEvent(self, event):
qp = QtGui.QPainter(self.viewport())
qp.setRenderHints(qp.Antialiasing)
width = self.defaultSectionSize()
delta = self.height()
# add offset if the view is horizontally scrolled
qp.translate(self.sectionViewportPosition(0) - .5, -.5)
fmDelta = (self.fontMetrics().height() - self.fontMetrics().descent()) * .5
# create a reference rectangle (note that the negative height)
rect = QtCore.QRectF(0, 0, width, -delta)
diagonal = hypot(delta, delta)
for s in range(self.count()):
if self.isSectionHidden(s):
continue
qp.save()
qp.save()
qp.setPen(self.borderPen)
# apply a "shear" transform making the rectangle a parallelogram;
# since the transformation is applied top to bottom
# we translate vertically to the bottom of the view
# and draw the "negative height" rectangle
qp.setTransform(qp.transform().translate(s * width, delta).shear(-1, 0))
qp.drawRect(rect)
qp.setPen(QtCore.Qt.NoPen)
qp.setBrush(self.labelBrush)
qp.drawRect(rect.adjusted(2, -2, -2, 2))
qp.restore()
qp.translate(s * width + width, delta)
qp.rotate(-45)
label = str(self.model().headerData(s, QtCore.Qt.Horizontal))
elidedLabel = self.fontMetrics().elidedText(
label, QtCore.Qt.ElideRight, diagonal - self.fontEllipsisSize)
qp.drawText(0, -fmDelta, elidedLabel)
qp.restore()
class AngledTable(QtWidgets.QTableView):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
QtWidgets.QTableView.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
self.setHorizontalHeader(AngledHeader(self))
self.verticalScrollBarSpacer = QtWidgets.QWidget()
self.addScrollBarWidget(self.verticalScrollBarSpacer, QtCore.Qt.AlignTop)
self.fixLock = False
def setModel(self, model):
if self.model():
self.model().headerDataChanged.disconnect(self.fixViewport)
QtWidgets.QTableView.setModel(self, model)
model.headerDataChanged.connect(self.fixViewport)
def fixViewport(self):
if self.fixLock:
return
self.fixLock = True
# delay the viewport/scrollbar states since the view has to process its
# new header data first
QtCore.QTimer.singleShot(0, self.delayedFixViewport)
def delayedFixViewport(self):
# add a right margin through the horizontal scrollbar range
QtWidgets.QApplication.processEvents()
header = self.horizontalHeader()
if not header.isVisible():
self.verticalScrollBarSpacer.setFixedHeight(0)
self.updateGeometries()
return
self.verticalScrollBarSpacer.setFixedHeight(header.sizeHint().height())
bar = self.horizontalScrollBar()
bar.blockSignals(True)
step = bar.singleStep() * (header.height() / header.defaultSectionSize())
bar.setMaximum(bar.maximum() + step)
bar.blockSignals(False)
self.fixLock = False
def resizeEvent(self, event):
# ensure that the viewport and scrollbars are updated whenever
# the table size change
QtWidgets.QTableView.resizeEvent(self, event)
self.fixViewport()
class TestWidget(QtWidgets.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
QtWidgets.QWidget.__init__(self)
l = QtWidgets.QGridLayout()
self.setLayout(l)
self.table = AngledTable()
l.addWidget(self.table)
model = QtGui.QStandardItemModel(4, 5)
self.table.setModel(model)
self.table.setHorizontalScrollMode(self.table.ScrollPerPixel)
model.setVerticalHeaderLabels(['Location {}'.format(l + 1) for l in range(8)])
columns = ['Column {}'.format(c + 1) for c in range(8)]
columns[3] += ' very, very, very, very, very, very, long'
model.setHorizontalHeaderLabels(columns)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
w = TestWidget()
w.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
Please note that I edited the painting and click detection code using QTransforms instead QPolygons: while it's a bit more complex to understand its mechanics, it's faster than creating a polygon and computing its points each time a column header has to be drawn.
Also, I've added support for maximum header height (in case any header label get too long), and a "spacer" widget that shifts the vertical scrollbar to the actual "beginning" of the table contents.
