C# – Crystal Report: Showing Single Column Data into Rows of Multiple Columns

If the table columns are name and size, you vertically arrange the details fields like...

name  {name_field}
size  {size_field}

but i think the problem with that is when you "format with multiple columns" it would turn into this...

name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}
name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}
name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}  name  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}  size  {size_field}

is that the problem? How to only display the "row header" in the first column? Because I'm not sure if that's possible. And even if you could do it, is this what you really want?

name  {name_field}  {name_field}  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  {size_field}  {size_field}
name  {name_field}  {name_field}  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  {size_field}  {size_field}
name  {name_field}  {name_field}  {name_field}
size  {size_field}  {size_field}  {size_field}

Wouldn't it be easier to just go the standard way of...

name          size          name          size          name          size
{name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}
{name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}
{name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}
{name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}
{name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}  {name_field}  {size_field}

Am I missing something?

EDIT

Create a formula for each field like so...

if remainder(recordnumber, 3) = 1 then
"Field Name    " + {some_field}
else
{some_field}

might want to put the conditional into a function, in case you ever want to display more than 3 columns.

The following is potentially faster, as the Dictionary is constructed with the required capacity to avoid reallocations:

//short example string - may contain 1000's     
string newstr = ...;

string[] keysAndValues = newstr.Split(':');
var mydictionary = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>(keysAndValues.Length);
foreach (string item in keysAndValues)     
{         
    List<string> list = new List<string>(item.Split(','));         
    mydictionary.Add(list[0], list);
    // remove key from list to match Jon Skeet's implementation
    list.RemoveAt(0);
} 

Less readable than Jon Skeet's LINQ version though.