Is max_width word-wrapping configurable?

[ajgringo619]

In my use-case, the column in question contains package names, which sometimes have hyphens or multiple hyphens. When I set a max_width on the column, some of the package names get split up:

| bluedevil breeze breeze-gtk eos-bash-shared glib2 kactivitymanagerd kde-cli-     |
| tools kde-gtk-config kdecoration kdeplasma-addons khotkeys kinfocenter kmenuedit | 
| kpipewire kscreen kscreenlocker ksystemstats kwallet-pam kwin layer-shell-qt     | 
| lib32-glib2 libarchive libkscreen libksysguard libwebp milou oxygen-sounds       | 
| plasma-desktop plasma-disks plasma-integration plasma-nm plasma-pa plasma-       | 
| workspace polkit-kde-agent powerdevil python-gobject qt5-webengine sddm-kcm      |
| sqlite systemsettings vivaldi                                                    |

Is there a way to exclude hyphenated words from being wrapped?

[hugovk]

No, but it could be done by setting break_on_hyphens=False here:

https://github.com/jazzband/prettytable/blob/1c0aeee4d3109f38dff8926111b4ca168d059d90/src/prettytable/prettytable.py#L1957

>>> import textwrap
>>> line = "bluedevil breeze breeze-gtk eos-bash-shared glib2 kactivitymanagerd kde-cli-tools"
>>> textwrap.fill(line, 40)
'bluedevil breeze breeze-gtk eos-bash-\nshared glib2 kactivitymanagerd kde-cli-\ntools'
>>> textwrap.fill(line, 40, break_on_hyphens=False)
'bluedevil breeze breeze-gtk\neos-bash-shared glib2 kactivitymanagerd\nkde-cli-tools'
>>>

Docs: https://docs.python.org/3/library/textwrap.html

Would you like to put a PR together to make it configurable?

Maybe the thing to do would have a dictionary that can be used to set all the other textwrap.fill parameters?

[ajgringo619]

I've got the time, just not sure where to begin. Can you point me in the right direction? Never contributed directly to a Github project before.

[hugovk]

Sure!

The high level is:

You start off by forking this repo, there's a Fork button on the main page: https://github.com/jazzband/prettytable

Then clone it to your computer, for example: git clone https://github.com/ajgringo619/PrettyTable

Docs: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/fork-a-repo

The comes the coding, add what's needed, with tests. You can test locally via tox, pip install -U tox, then tox -e py311 to test with Python 3.11 for example.

Also it's a good idea to enable GitHub Actions on your fork - https://github.com/ajgringo619/PrettyTable/actions - then it'll run the tests when you push.

When you're ready, you create a "pull request" to submit it back here. Then we can review it, update it, then merge.

Docs: https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request

Feel free to ask more details about any of these steps!

[ajgringo619]

Thanks for the detailed info, although I'm sure I'mm be asking a lot more questions. First one: what's the oldest version of Python I should be testing on?

[hugovk]

We follow the same as the upstream supported CPython versions, so Python 3.8.

You don't necessarily need to install all the versions though, because the CI will test 3.8-3.12 on Ubuntu, Windows and macOS.

[ajgringo619]

I've already got versions 3.9 through 3.11 installed, so one more won't be a problem. Thanks again for all the info!

[anibal2j]

Is this fix going to fix the fact that column headers should also wrap? I have column headers that are dynamic, and I need them to wrap - otherwise the table looks terrible. SHould I open a new issue for that?

[ajgringo619]

Can't believe it's been 7 months since I had "time" to work on this; I deleted the fork as it was just sitting there collecting dust. If I can truly commit to this in the future, I will post again with actual progress.

[av-guy]

@ajgringo619 I can take care of this one if you would like.

[ajgringo619]

@ajgringo619 I can take care of this one if you would like.

Thanks a bunch. I'll be happy to test whatever you come up with.