# phpman > man > showtable(1p) [SHOWTABLE(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SHOWTABLE/1p/markdown) User Contributed Perl Documentation [SHOWTABLE(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SHOWTABLE/1p/markdown) ## NAME showtable - Show data in nicely formatted columns ## USAGE **showtable** [-_options_] [_file_] ## DESCRIPTION **Showtable** reads an input data stream and displays it in a nicely formatted listing, with exact formatting depending upon the options. The input stream, _file_ or "STDIN" by default should consist of data separated by tabs or the defined _separator_ character (see **-d**). The actual output formatting is peformed by the **ShowTable** module. ## OPTIONS There are two general sets of options: those which help determine the format of the input, and those which determine the format of the output. ### Options affecting input ### -break= Set the inter-column break string to "_str_". The default is a tab (""\t""). If **-strip** is also given, blanks surrounding the break string will also be ignored. ### -d ### -nod(ashes) Do not ignore lines of separators, such as dashes, equal signs, or underlines. If **-nodashes** is given, and these lines do occur in the stream, they will be treated as normal data. ### -ti(tles)[= Treat the first _NN_ rows of data as column titles; multiple words in the column titles may wrap vertically. If _NN_ is omitted, it defaults to 1. No **-titles** option is the same as **-titles=0**. ### -in(put)= Set the input type as _type_, which can be one of: _box_, _list_, _table_, or _simple_. A _simple_-type table is the same as a _table_-type, but no wrapping characters are recognized. ### -s(trip) ### -nos(trip) Do not strip blanks from the input. Useful if there is formatted or aligned data within a boxed table. ### Options affecting output ### -t(able) or determined column widths. See [Data::ShowTable](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Data%3A%3AShowTable/markdown) for more details. ### -si(mple) [Data::ShowTable](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Data%3A%3AShowTable/markdown) for more details. ### -l(ist) ### -b(ox) ### -ht(ml) ### -ti(tles)= Define the column names explicitly. This is useful for naming columns of data from "STDIN", when **showtable** is being used as a filter. The first column name, _name1_, cannot begin with a digit. This option allows any column titles obtained from the input to be overridden. ### -noh(eaders) Do not output any headers on the tables; **-titles=0** implies this option. ### -f Select fields numbered _n1_, _n2_, etc., to display. Each _nN_ is a field index, or a range of indexes in the form: "N"-"M" The default is to show all the fields in each row. Fields are numbered from 1. An example: to show the first, and three through five fields of the "/etc/passwd" file: showtable -d: -f1,2-5 /etc/passwd ### -fields Select the named fields to display. The field names must be available, either through the data stream, or by using the **-titles** option. The field names given must match the existing field names _exactly_. Using the file "/etc/passwd" for another example: to show the same first two fields, by name: showtable -d: -titles=Login,UID -fields=Login,UID /etc/passwd ### -w(idth) Set the maximum table width. This value is applied to the variable [Data::Showtable::Max_Table_Width](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Data%3A%3AShowtable%3A%3AMaxTableWidth/markdown). When the total width of all columns to be displayed exceeds this value, all column widths are scaled uniformly. If **-width** is not given, then for all output but **-html**, the default value is either ""COLUMNS"", if defined, or 80, if not. Whith **-html** mode, there is no default value for **-width**; in other words, there is no limit to the width. ### -cw(idths) Set individual column widths to the specified values. Empty column widths imply no maximum width. If the **-width** option is also given, then the **-cwidth** column widths can also be given as fractions or percentages. Example: To set the maximum width of the third column to 20 characters: -cw=,,20 ### HTML-only options (the usage of which implies -html) ### -noe(scape) Do not perform HTML escape sequences on the data; this allows embedded HTML text in the data to be displayed properly with the **-html** option. ### -attributes Declare the table attributes, which are inserted into the "TABLE" token. For example, the option: -attributes='BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=4' would cause the following HTML: The default table attributes are:
### -t(itle) Set the HTML formats for the column titles. The **-title**___**formats** (or just **-tf**) can be given multiple times, for each column, or formats for multiple columns can be given on the same option separated by semi-colons "";"". Each _fmtN_ can itself be multiple HTML items, separated by commas. Each HTML element can be given either as an HTML token (eg: ""\"), or as a plain name (eg: ""BOLD""). For example, here is a title format specification for three columns, where the first column title should be bold italic, the second italic, and the third italic in a smaller font: -tf='BOLD,I;I;,I' ### -d(ata) The same as **-title**___**formats** but applies to the column data. ### -url(s)= Define a mapping from column names, or indexes, to URLs to be inserted as around the values for the named columns. Each _colN_ is a column name or index, and each _urlN_ is a string representing the URL to be inserted for the given column. The URL text may contain these substitution strings: **%K** - will be substituted with the current column name (or _key_). **%V** - will be substituted with the current column value. Multiple **-url** options may be given, if desired, rather than creating one long argument for a single **-url**. For example: showtable -d: -f1,6 -titles=Login,Homedir \ -url='Login=mailto:%V' \ -url='HomeDir=file:%V' \ /etc/passwd ### Other options ### -help ### Boxed Input If the input type is _box_, then vertical and horizontal box characters are removed from the input stream, and blanks surrounding the vertical box characters are removed. The vertical box characters (column separaters) are ""|"" or "":"". The The horizontal box characters are ""+"" and ""-"". Morever, data wrapped within a column is recognized and parsed as one column value, by recognizing the presence of a _wrapping_ _prefix_ or _wrapping_ _suffix_ character. Currently, the wrapping prefix character is "<", and the wrapping suffix character is ">". An example of data wrapped within a column is given here. The table below has just two _logical_ rows of data; with both rows having data wrapped into multiple _physical_ rows. +---------+---------+---------+ | Col 1 | Col 2 | Col 3 | +---------+---------+---------+ | This is>| Another>| Row 1,3>| |< a cont>|< value. || || || Item2-2 | Item2-3 | +---------+---------+---------+ ### List Format When using the **-list** or **-input=list** options, either, or both, the input and output may be in a "list" format, which is implemented using the following syntax: r1c1_name: r1c1_value r1c2_name: r1c2_value ... r1cN_name: r1cN_value r2c1_name: r2c1_value r2c2_name: r2c2_value : r2c2_value_continued ... r2cN_name: r2cN_value rMc1_name: rMc1_value rMc2_name: rMc2_value ... rMcN_name: rMcN_value Each _row_ of data consists of one or more _columns_, and ends with a blank line. Each _column_ consists of a _column_ _name_, followed by a colon ":", followed by an optional, single space or tab, followed by the _column_ _value_, on the same line. Continuation lines of the previous column value consist of one or more space or tab characters, a colon ":", one optional, single space or tab, followed by the continuation value. In the example above, The second column value of the second row was continued. ### HTML Input with HTML Output When using **-html** on data already containing HTML-formatted text, the **-noescape** option should be used. By default, all input text is assumed _not_ to be HTML-formatted, and is escaped allowing embedded "<", ">" characters, if any, to be displayed correctly. ## DEPENDENCIES [**Data::ShowTable**](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Data%3A%3AShowTable/markdown) module Performs the actual output formatting. ## AUTHOR Alan K. Stebbens <_aks@stebbens.org_> ## BUGS • Currently, the box formatting characters are not configurable: '+' for the corners; '-' and '|' for the tops and sides, respectively. In an ideal world, these things would be configurable. • The continuation prefix and suffix characters, '<' and '>', respectively, are also not configurable: • When reading _table_ input, any data ending with ">" will be considered to be continued by the next row of data. To avoid this, use **-input=simple**. • When selecting noncontiguous fields (ie: **-f1,4**>) without field names, the default field names will be consecutively numbered from 1, which is counter-intuitive to the original selection. To avoid this, name the fields using the **-title=...** option. perl v5.32.0 2021-01-06 [SHOWTABLE(1p)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SHOWTABLE/1p/markdown)