ASCII Table

This library provides an easy and fluent way to build ASCII tables. Looking at a very simple first example:

JTable table = JTable.of()
                     .width(50)
                     .row()
                        .col().content("Col 1 - 1").done()
                        .col().content("Col 1 - 2").done()
                     .done()
                     .row()
                        .col().content("Col 2 - 1").done()
                        .col().content("Col 2 - 2").done()
                     .done();

table.render().forEach(System.out::println)

Results in

┌─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│Col 1 - 1                │Col 1 - 2                │
├─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│Col 2 - 1                │Col 2 - 2                │
└─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

Related Projects

This library is built with a lot of borrowed ideas (and even some code) from other similar projects.

• https://github.com/iNamik/java_text_tables
• https://github.com/vdmeer/asciitable

Motivation

The main motivation behind this library is to support several features that I was unable to find in any other libraries I explored:

• Use ANSI codes
• Support variable column widths
• Automatic line wrapping

More on the above to come

Usage

ASCII Table is rather simple by nature, it uses a fluent API to build the table. It does however require the following:

• The table MUST have an explicit width
• The columns' width of each row must add up to the table width. They are not required and we'll evenly distribute the available width among the columns

Object	Method	Description
JTable	of()	Bootstrap method to create a table.
...	width(int width)	Sets the width of the table to the specified number of spaces
...	theme(JTheme theme)	Speficies the theme to be used by this table. Defaults to single line border
...	contentParser(ContentParser contentParser)	Specified the content parser to be used. Defaults to simple text parser
...	render()	Generates a list of strings representing the rendered table. Each entry represents a line
...	row()	Creates a new row and returns its fluent builder
JRow	padding(JPadding padding)	Specified the padding to be used on all columns of this row. Defaults to the theme's configuration
...	done()	Returns the parent JTable fluent builder
...	col()	Creates a new column and returns its fluent builder
JCol	content(Object content)	Sets the content of the column
...	width(int width)	Explicitly sets the width of the column
...	padding(JPadding padding)	Specified the padding to be used by the column. Defaults to the row's configuration
...	done()	Returns the parent JRow fluent builder

In Action

Variable Length Columns

JTable.of().width(23)
      .row()
        .col().width(11).content('Simple 1').done()
        .col().width(5).content('A 1').done()
        .col().width(7).content('Bob 2').done()
      .done()
      .row()
        .col().width(6).content('Alt 1').done()
        .col().width(9).content('Alt 2').done()
        .col().width(8).content('Second').done()
      .done()
      .render().forEach(System.out::println);

Results in
┌───────────┬─────┬───────┐
│Simple 1   │A 1  │Bob 2  │
├──────┬────┴────┬┴───────┤
│Alt 1 │Alt 2    │Second  │
└──────┴─────────┴────────┘

ANSI Colors

Ansi colors are provided by JAnsi.

Notice that a different ContentParser is used. This is required so column width calculations disregard magic ASCII codes.

JTable.of().width(20)
      .contentParser(new AnsiContentParser())
      .row()
        .col().content(ansi().fg(Ansi.Color.RED).a("Simple")
        .bgYellow().fgBlue().a(" content").reset()).done()
      .done()
      .row()
        .col().content('Alt content').done()
      .done()
      .render().forEach(System.out::println)
┌────────────────────┐
│�[31mSimple�[43;34m content�[m      │
├────────────────────┤
│Alt content         │
└────────────────────┘

Custom Theme

We provide 3 builtin themes, single line, double line and no line (pretty self explanatory). You may however create your own!

JTheme theme = new JTheme('#', '-', '}', '/', 'v', '\\', '>', '<', '\\', '^', '/');
JTable.of().width(20)
      .theme(theme)
      .row()
        .col().content('Simple 1').done()
        .col().content('Simple 2').done()
      .done()
      .row()
        .col().content('Alt 1').done()
        .col().content('Alt 2').done()
      .done()

Results in
/----------v----------\
}Simple 1  }Simple 2  }
>----------#----------<
}Alt 1     }Alt 2     }
\----------^----------/

Custom Padding

We provide 2 builtin padding options, NO_PADDING (default) and DEFAUL_PADDING (one space on each side). As with everything else, you may create your own padding pattern!

JPadding specialPadding = new JPadding(2, '&', 1, '%', 4, '+', 2, '"')
JPadding specialPadding2 = new JPadding(2, '>', 1, 'v', 4, '<', 2, '^')
JTable.of().width(30)
      .row()
        .col().padding(JPadding.DEFAULT_PADDING).content('Simple 1').done()
        .col().padding(specialPadding).content('Simple 2').done()
      .done()
      .row()
        .col().padding(specialPadding2).content('Alt 1').done()
        .col().content('Alt 2').done()
      .done()
      .render().forEach(System.out::println)

Results in

┌───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Simple 1      │%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%│
│               │&&Simple 2+++++│
│               │"""""""""""""""│
│               │"""""""""""""""│
├───────────────┼───────────────┤
│vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv│Alt 2          │
│>>Alt 1<<<<<<<<│               │
│^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^│               │
│^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^│               │
└───────────────┴───────────────┘