BetterConsoleTables

Faster, more configurable, and more robust console tables for C# console applications

What it does

Provides tables for your console application! But really, it provides tables in a very performance friendly way, while also adding the ability to display multiple tables in a variety of formats. There is additional configuration information that you can use to overwrite default functionality, allowing you to create tables with whatever style you want.

Why?

To make something better than the defacto console tables library.

How do I use it?

Get it from nuget Install-Package BetterConsoleTables -Version 1.1.2
Include it using BetterConsoleTables;
See code examples or example directory

You mentioned performance?

Yes! Yes I did. I wrote this to not just be configurable, but also performance friendly. I measure it's performance in ticks (10,000 ticks/millisecond).

Generating a default table in the same manner as seen in the first example takes approximately 1900 ticks (19,000 nanoseconds), or 0.19 milliseconds. I'm happy with this number, considering it's an order of magnitude faster than other libraries.

Code Examples

Single Simple Table

static void Main(String[] args)
{
    Table  table = new Table("one", "two", "three");
    table.AddRow(1, 2, 3)
         .AddRow("long line goes here", "short text", "word");

    Console.Write(table.ToString());
    Console.ReadKey();
}

Multiple Tables

static void Main(String[] args)
{
    Table table = new Table("One", "Two", "Three")
      .AddRow("1", "2", "3")
      .AddRow("Short", "item", "Here")
      .AddRow("Longer items go here", "stuff stuff", "stuff");

    Table table2 = new Table("One", "Two", "Three", "Four")
      .AddRow("One", "Two", "Three")
      .AddRow("Short", "item", "Here", "A fourth column!!!")
      .AddRow("stuff", "longer stuff", "even longer stuff in this cell")
      .Config = Config.UnicodeAlt();

    ConsoleTables tables = new ConsoleTables(table, table2);
    
    Console.Write(tables.ToString());
    
    Console.ReadKey();
}

Column Alignment

    ColumnHeader[] headers = new[]
    {
        new ColumnHeader("Left"),
        new ColumnHeader("Left Header", Alignment.Right),
        new ColumnHeader("Right Header", Alignment.Center, Alignment.Right),
    };
    Table table = new Table(headers)
        .AddRow("1", "2", "3")
        .AddRow("Short", "item", "Here")
        .AddRow("Longer items go here", "Right Contents", "Centered Contents");
    table.Config = TableConfiguration.MySqlSimple(); // Sets table formatting

    Console.Write(table.ToString());
    Console.ReadKey();

Console Outputs

Column & Row Alignment 1

ColumnHeader[] headers = new[]
{
    new ColumnHeader("Left"),
    new ColumnHeader("Right", Alignment.Right, Alignment.Right),
    new ColumnHeader("Center", Alignment.Center, Alignment.Center),
};

Table table = new Table(headers);

+----------------------+-------------+---------------------+
| Left                 |       Right |        Center       |
+----------------------+-------------+---------------------+
| 1                    |           2 |          3          |
| Short                |        item |         Here        |
| Longer items go here | stuff stuff | some centered thing |
+----------------------+-------------+---------------------+

Column & Row Alignment 2

ColumnHeader[] headers = new[]
{
    new ColumnHeader("Left"),
    new ColumnHeader("Left Header", Alignment.Right),
    new ColumnHeader("Right Header", Alignment.Center, Alignment.Right),
};

Table table = new Table(headers);

+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+
| Left                 | Left Header    |      Right Header |
+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+
| 1                    |              2 |         3         |
| Short                |           item |        Here       |
| Longer items go here | Right Contents | Centered Contents |
+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+

Default

----------------------------------------------
| One                  | Two         | Three |
----------------------------------------------
| 1                    | 2           | 3     |
----------------------------------------------
| Short                | item        | Here  |
----------------------------------------------
| Longer items go here | stuff stuff | stuff |
----------------------------------------------

Markdown

table.Config = TableConfiguration.Markdown();

| One                  | Two         | Three |
|----------------------|-------------|-------|
| 1                    | 2           | 3     |
| Short                | item        | Here  |
| Longer items go here | stuff stuff | stuff |

MySql

table.Config = TableConfiguration.MySql();

+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| One                  | Two         | Three |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| 1                    | 2           | 3     |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| Short                | item        | Here  |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| Longer items go here | stuff stuff | stuff |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+

MySql Simple

table.Config = TableConfiguration.MySqlSimple();

+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| One                  | Two         | Three |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+
| 1                    | 2           | 3     |
| Short                | item        | Here  |
| Longer items go here | stuff stuff | stuff |
+----------------------+-------------+-------+

Unicode

table.Config = TableConfiguration.Unicode();

┌──────────────────────┬─────────────┬───────┐
│ One                  │ Two         │ Three │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────┤
│ 1                    │ 2           │ 3     │
│ Short                │ item        │ Here  │
│ Longer items go here │ stuff stuff │ stuff │
└──────────────────────┴─────────────┴───────┘

Unicode Alt

 table.Config = TableConfiguration.UnicodeAlt();

╔══════════════════════╦═════════════╦═══════╗
║ One                  ║ Two         ║ Three ║
╠══════════════════════╬═════════════╬═══════╣
║ 1                    ║ 2           ║ 3     ║
║ Short                ║ item        ║ Here  ║
║ Longer items go here ║ stuff stuff ║ stuff ║
╚══════════════════════╩═════════════╩═══════╝

Willy-Kimura / BetterConsoleTables