PrettyTable

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A CLI based Node.js module for generating and displaying pretty ASCII tables from multiple data sources.

- 📊 Generate tables from arrays, CSV, or JSON data
- 🔍 Sort, filter, and manipulate table data
- 🖨️ Output as plain text or HTML
- 🛠️ Modern JavaScript with comprehensive error handling

Installation

``bash
npm install prettytable
`

Basic Usage

Create a table with headers and rows in one shot:

`javascript
// Import and instantiate
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

// Define headers and data
const headers = ["Name", "Age", "City"];
const rows = [
["John", 22, "New York"],
["Elizabeth", 43, "Chicago"],
["Bill", 31, "Atlanta"],
["Mary", 18, "Los Angeles"],
];

// Create and display table
pt.create(headers, rows);
pt.print();
`

Output:

`
+-----------+-----+-------------+
| Name | Age | City |
+-----------+-----+-------------+
| John | 22 | New York |
| Elizabeth | 43 | Chicago |
| Bill | 31 | Atlanta |
| Mary | 18 | Los Angeles |
+-----------+-----+-------------+
`

Build a table row-by-row:

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

// Set column names
pt.fieldNames(["City", "Area", "Population", "Rainfall"]);

// Add rows one by one
pt.addRow(["Adelaide", 1295, 1158259, 600.5]);
pt.addRow(["Brisbane", 5905, 1857594, 1146.4]);
pt.addRow(["Darwin", 112, 120900, 1714.7]);
pt.addRow(["Hobart", 1357, 205556, 619.5]);
pt.addRow(["Sydney", 2058, 4336374, 1214.8]);
pt.addRow(["Melbourne", 1566, 3806092, 646.9]);
pt.addRow(["Perth", 5386, 1554769, 869.4]);

// Display the table
pt.print();
`

Data Import Features

$3

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

// Load from CSV file (first row is used as headers)
pt.csv("./data.csv");
pt.print();
`

$3

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

// Load from JSON file (object keys become headers)
pt.json("./data.json");
pt.print();
`

Output Options

$3

Get the table as a formatted string:

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

pt.fieldNames(["Name", "Age", "City"]);
pt.addRow(["John", 25, "New York"]);
pt.addRow(["Mary", 30, "Chicago"]);

const tableString = pt.toString();
console.log(tableString);
`

$3

Create an HTML table representation:

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

pt.fieldNames(["Name", "Age", "City"]);
pt.addRow(["John", 25, "New York"]);
pt.addRow(["Mary", 30, "Chicago"]);

// Basic HTML table
const basicHtml = pt.html();

// HTML table with custom attributes
const styledHtml = pt.html({
id: "data-table",
class: "table table-striped",
border: "1",
});
`

Table Manipulation

$3

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

pt.fieldNames(["Name", "Age", "City"]);
pt.addRow(["John", 22, "New York"]);
pt.addRow(["Elizabeth", 43, "Chicago"]);
pt.addRow(["Bill", 31, "Atlanta"]);
pt.addRow(["Mary", 18, "Los Angeles"]);

// Sort by age (ascending)
pt.sortTable("Age");
pt.print();

// Sort by name (descending)
pt.sortTable("Name", true);
pt.print();
`

$3

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

pt.fieldNames(["Name", "Age", "City"]);
pt.addRow(["John", 22, "New York"]);
pt.addRow(["Elizabeth", 43, "Chicago"]);
pt.addRow(["Bill", 31, "Atlanta"]);
pt.addRow(["Mary", 18, "Los Angeles"]);

// Delete the second row (Elizabeth)
pt.deleteRow(2);
pt.print();

// Clear all rows but keep the structure
pt.clearTable();
pt.print();

// Delete the entire table
pt.deleteTable();
`

Error Handling

PrettyTable includes comprehensive error handling for all methods:

`javascript
const PrettyTable = require("prettytable");
const pt = new PrettyTable();

try {
pt.fieldNames(["Name", "Age", "City"]);
pt.addRow(["John", 22]); // Error: Row length doesn't match columns
} catch (error) {
console.error(Error: ${error.message});
}
`

API Reference

The PrettyTable module provides the following methods:

| Method | Description |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
| fieldNames(array) | Define column headers |
| addRow(array) | Add a single row |
| create(headers, rows) | Create table with headers and rows |
| toString() | Return table as a formatted string |
| print() | Print table to console |
| html([attributes]) | Generate HTML representation |
| csv(filename) | Import data from CSV file |
| json(filename) | Import data from JSON file |
| sortTable(column, [reverse]) | Sort by column |
| deleteRow(rownum) | Delete a specific row |
| clearTable() | Remove all rows |
| deleteTable() | Delete entire table |

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions! The codebase uses ESLint for code quality and Mocha/Chai for testing.

`bash


Install dependencies

npm install

Run linter

npm run lint

Fix automatically fixable issues

npm run lint:fix

Run tests

npm test
``

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.