table

Command line utility to format and display CSV.

Manual

See https://strahinja.srht.site/man/table/table.1.html.

Prerequisites

C compiler - defaults in config.mk

Install

$ git clone https://git.sr.ht/~strahinja/table
$ cd table
$ su
# make install

With got:

$ got clone https://git.sr.ht/~strahinja/table
$ got checkout table.git
$ cd table
$ su
# make install

Persistent build configuration file

The file config.mk will be sourced when building targets which also accept configuration through environment variables. For example, CPPFLAGS and PREFIX are specified in config.mk.

OpenBSD

Before running make(1), comment the CPPFLAGS definition in config.mk above the line with the “OpenBSD” comment and uncomment the one below it:

#CPPFLAGS	= -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L \
#		  -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=700
# OpenBSD
CPPFLAGS	= -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L \
		  -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=700 -D_BSD_SOURCE

Also, do the same for MANPREFIX:

#MANPREFIX	= $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/man
# OpenBSD
MANPREFIX	= $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/man

Install (Arch)

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/table.git
$ cd table
$ makepkg -si

Examples

Periodically display CPU load information in a single-line table (requires a mounted Linux-style /proc file system and GNU watch(1))

$ watch "table /proc/loadavg -d ' ' -c 50 -n -s ss"

Format a long list of files in the current directory in a double line table with single-line column divisors

$ LC_ALL=C ls -l | tail -n +2 | sed -E 's/ +/ /g' | table -d ' ' -n

Caution: format of ls(1) is not standardized, so this example might not work as intended.

Print information from /etc/passwd in a table:

$ table -n -d : -f 3:1:1:1:4:4:4 /etc/passwd

Same as above, without borders and with different column alignment:

$ table -n -H -d: -arccclll -see -f3:1:1:1:4:4:4 /etc/passwd

Configuring GNU Midnight Commander (mc)

GNU Midnight Commander file manager can be configured to use table as a

viewer (F3) for CSV files. To do that, edit /usr/lib/mc/ext.d/text.sh (or make and edit a local copy, for example in ~/bin/text.sh, which we will assume here) so that

case "${filetype}" in

block in do_view_action() function includes:

    csv)
        table -m -n "${MC_EXT_FILENAME}"
        ;;

You also need to edit extension file (Command->Edit extension file) or just edit ~/.config/mc/mc.ext and add the lines:

shell/.csv
        View=%view{ascii} ~/bin/text.sh view csv %var{PAGER:more}

before includes and default target.

Bonus – TSV viewer: include

    tsv)
        tsvtable -m -n "${MC_EXT_FILENAME}"
        ;;

in ~/bin/text.sh and

shell/.tsv
	View=%view{ascii} ~/bin/text.sh view tsv %var{PAGER:more}

in ~/.config/mc/mc.ext.

Configuring ranger file manager

ranger file manager can be configured to use table as a CSV file viewer. To do that, add the following to ~/.config/ranger/scope.sh, within the function handle_extension():

## CSV
csv)
    table -m "${FILE_PATH}" && exit 5
    exit 1;;

Bonus – TSV viewer:

## TSV
tsv)
    tsvtable -m "${FILE_PATH}" && exit 5
    exit 1;;

Configuring vifm

vifm file manager can also be configured to use table as a CSV file

viewer. To accomplish this, add the following lines to ~/.config/vifm/vifmrc:

" CSV
fileviewer *.csv
	\ table -m %c

Bonus – TSV viewer:

" TSV
fileviewer *.tsv
	\ tsvtable -m %c

Changelog

See git log for details.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.