CSharpVitamins.Tabulation 1.0.3

CSharpVitamins.Tabulation

This library aims to provide helpers for creating tabular data with minimal fuss.

Easily create tab or comma separated values (via CsvDefinition), or padded and aligned columns of plain text (with PlainTextTable).

Available on NuGet. To install, run the following command in the Package Manager Console:

PM> Install-Package CSharpVitamins.Tabulation

Usage: CsvDefinition

CsvDefinition is designed for quick production of CSV style text - it aims to keep the column header and how to produce the value close together.

// vars to be used inside column value funcs
const decimal VIP_SPEND = 1000000M;

// the definition  
var fields = new CsvDefinition<MyEntity>
{
  { "Username",      row => string.Concat(row.Prefix, ":", row.Username) },
  { "Email",         row => row.Email },
  { "Status",        row => row.TotalSpend >= VIP_SPEND ? "VIP!$!" : "Pffft..., peon" },
  { "Spend ($)",     row => row.TotalSpend == null ? "None" : row.TotalSpend.ToString("n2") },
  { "Year of Birth", row => row.Yob > 1900 && row.Yob <= DateTime.UtcNow.Year ? row.Yob.Value.ToString() : null },
  { "Enabled",       row => row.IsEnabled ? "Y" : "N" },
  { "Flags",         row => string.Join(", ", new string[]
                     {
                       row.SomeFlag ? "some" : null,
                       row.AnotherFlag ? "another" : null,
                       row.YetAnotherFlag ? "even-more" : null
                     }.Where(x => x != null))
  },
  { "Timestamp",     row => DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.fff") }
};

// the data
IEnumerable<MyEntity> rows = someDataSource.AsEnumerable<MyEntity>();

// the result
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
	// perhaps write out some additional notes or headers
	// writer.WriteLine("# -- bof --");

	// write out some tab delimited data
	fields.Write(writer, rows, "\t");

	// writer.WriteLine("# -- eof --");
	return writer.ToString();
}

At its heart, CsvDefinition<T> is a wrapper around List<KeyValuePair<string, Func<T, string>>> with a Write method - so, you can call .Add or .Remove to work with your base definition after it's created.

if (!User.IsInRole("Admin"))
	fields.Remove("Spend $");

Or have the definition created for you, from a class

var fields = new CsvDefinitionFactory().CreateFromModel<MyEntity>();

... get data, create writer, etc...

fields.Write(writer, rows, ",");

If you want more control over the production of the results, you can specify Func<PropertyInfo, object, string> converters for the type.

var factory = new CsvDefinitionFactory();

// convert header names to lower case
factory.NameConverter = (prop) => prop.Name.ToLowerInvariant();

// make bools convert to Y/N
factory.ValueConverters.Add(typeof(bool), (prop, value) => (bool)value ? "Y" : "N");

// use the factory to create multiple definitions
var def1 = factory.CreateFromModel<MyEntity>();

var def2 = factory.CreateFromModel<AnotherClass>();

Usage: PlainTextTable

A PlainTextTable allows padding of tabular data so it can be displayed easily as text.

• Works best with small to medium length strings of data
• Does not support multi-line text (newlines) or tabs
• Since columns are padded using spaces, output from this class is best presented using a fixed-wdith font

Example 1: classic

var tab = new PlainTextTable();

// header
tab.AddRow("Name", "Enabled?", "Title");

// lines of data 
foreach(var row in someDataSource)
	tab.AddRow(row.Name, row.IsEnabled ? "Y" : "N", row.Title)

tab.Align('L', 'C');

return tab.ToString();

which might return

Name    Enabled? Job          
Dave       Y     Developer    
Sarah      Y     Designer     
Mustafa    N     Data Analysis

Example 2: fluid

Using the fluid style for a quick dump of data...

return new PlainTextTable()
	.AddRow("Name", "Size", "Status") // optionally add a header
	.ImportRows(someDataSource.Select(x => new string[] { x.Name, x.Size, x.Status }))
	.SeparateBy(" | ")
	.Align('L', 'R', 'C')
	.TrimTrailingSpace()
	.ToString();

which might produce something like this

Name               |    Size |  State
TPS Report rev 362 |   42 MB | started
readme.md          |    6 KB |  late
TPS Report final   | 0 bytes |  late

Dividers can also be injected to separate headers, content and footers, e.g.

return new PlainTextTable()
	.Align('L', 'R')
	.SeparateBy("   ")
	.AddRow("Name", "Size")
	.Divide('-')
	.ImportRows(someDataSource.Select(x => new string[] { x.Name, x.Size.ToString() }))
	.Divide('-')
	.AddRow(null, someDataSource.Sum(x => x.Size).ToString())
	.ToString();

resulting in...

Name             Size
---------------------
File1.txt        5 KB
File2.config    12 KB
File3.exe      137 KB
---------------------
               154 KB

Happy coding!