Set the length of each column

[zzzkorn]

Set the length of each column with a separator '. For example:

x = PrettyTable()
x.field_names = ["Country'50", "Capital", "is_russia", "that's mine"]
x.add_row(["Russia", "Moscow", True, True])
x.add_rows([["Argentina", "Buenos Aires", False, False], ["Jamaica", "Kingston", False, False]])
x.add_column("Starts with A'77", [False, True, False])
x.add_column("Can't do this'30", [False, True, False])

print(x)

[hugovk]

Thanks for the contribution, but I think this could break existing data that just happens to have an apostrophe before a number.

[zzzkorn]

Only the number after the ' at the end of the line is taken into account. We can also use a less common separator.

For example:

x = PrettyTable()
x.field_names = ["Country'500 '30", "Capital", "is_russia", "that's mine"]

+--------------------------------+---------+-----------+-------------+
|          Country'500           | Capital | is_russia | that's mine |
+--------------------------------+---------+-----------+-------------+
+--------------------------------+---------+-----------+-------------+

[hugovk]

We have no idea what characters people are using in their data.

Would you like to propose an alternative API that doesn't involve interpreting user data?

How about an API like x.set_widths([50, None, ....])?

And/or add a width parameter to add_column and/or add_rows?

How would it handle data that is longer than the requested width? Cropping the data? Or is it a minimum width?

Changes would require unit tests to cover different use cases, plus documentation in README and docstrings.

(See also https://github.com/jazzband/prettytable/issues/116.)

[zzzkorn]

Ok, I'll take care of the x.set_widths() method implementation and related tasks.

[codecov[bot]]

Codecov Report

Merging #126 (37440e0) into master (0a8f5b9) will increase coverage by 0.57%. The diff coverage is 100.00%.

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master     #126      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   91.07%   91.65%   +0.57%     
==========================================
  Files           3        3              
  Lines        1703     1809     +106     
==========================================
+ Hits         1551     1658     +107     
+ Misses        152      151       -1     

Flag	Coverage Δ
GHA_Ubuntu	91.65% <100.00%> (+0.57%)	:arrow_up:
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Impacted Files	Coverage Δ
src/prettytable/prettytable.py	87.63% <100.00%> (+0.34%)	:arrow_up:
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[hugovk]

How does this work with min_width and max_width for the whole table?

They're documented in the docstring, but not the README: https://github.com/jazzband/prettytable/pull/98/files

I'd guess these column min widths should override the table one? Some tests mixing would be useful.

[zzzkorn]

Ok i will test this

[zzzkorn]

The _compute_widths() method subtracts the column width, taking into account the minimum and maximum widths. This width is started with the columns_min_width and the maximum value is taken.