How to Set Column alignment in Python tabulate

The tabulate module in Python allows you to format tabular data into beautifully structured tables.

Proper column alignment enhances readability.

This tutorial will guide you through various methods to control column alignment in tabulate.

 

 

Basic Column Alignment

Left Alignment

To left-align all columns in your table, use the colalign parameter in the tabulate function and set each column’s alignment to 'left'.

from tabulate import tabulate
data = [
    ['Ahmed', 24, 'Engineer'],
    ['Fatima', 27, 'Data Scientist'],
    ['Mona', 22, 'Artist']
]
headers = ['Name', 'Age', 'Profession']

# Setting all columns to left alignment
print(tabulate(data, headers, colalign=("left", "left", "left")))

Output:

Name    Age    Profession
------  -----  --------------
Ahmed   24     Engineer
Fatima  27     Data Scientist
Mona    22     Artist

All columns are aligned to the left, which aligns the text at the start of each cell.

Right Alignment

To right-align all columns, set the colalign parameter to 'right' for each column.

print(tabulate(data, headers, colalign=("right", "right", "right")))

Output:

  Name    Age      Profession
------  -----  --------------
 Ahmed     24        Engineer
Fatima     27  Data Scientist
  Mona     22          Artist

Here, all columns are right-aligned.

Center Alignment

To center-align all columns, set the colalign parameter to 'center' for each column.

print(tabulate(data, headers, colalign=("center", "center", "center")))

Output:

 Name    Age     Profession
------  -----  --------------
Ahmed    24       Engineer
Fatima   27    Data Scientist
 Mona    22        Artist    

In this example, all columns are center-aligned.

 

Specify Alignment for Individual Columns

You can set different alignments for each column by specifying a tuple of alignment options in the colalign parameter.

# Different alignment for each column
print(tabulate(data, headers, colalign=("left", "right", "center")))

Output:

Name      Age    Profession
------  -----  --------------
Ahmed      24     Engineer
Fatima     27  Data Scientist
Mona       22      Artist 

Here, the ‘Name’ column is left-aligned, ‘Age’ is right-aligned, and ‘Profession’ is center-aligned.

 

Alignment with Different Table Formats

Grid Format

To use the grid format, specify tablefmt='grid' in the tabulate function, which adds borders around your table.

print(tabulate(data, headers, tablefmt='grid', colalign=("left", "center", "right")))

Output:

+--------+-------+----------------+
| Name   |  Age  |     Profession |
+========+=======+================+
| Ahmed  |  24   |       Engineer |
+--------+-------+----------------+
| Fatima |  27   | Data Scientist |
+--------+-------+----------------+
| Mona   |  22   |         Artist |
+--------+-------+----------------+

In the grid format, the custom alignments are preserved, and the table is enclosed with borders.

Pipe Format

You can also use the pipe format by setting tablefmt='pipe', which is useful for Markdown tables.

print(tabulate(data, headers, tablefmt='pipe', colalign=("right", "left", "center")))

Output:

|   Name | Age   |   Profession   |
|-------:|:------|:--------------:|
|  Ahmed | 24    |    Engineer    |
| Fatima | 27    | Data Scientist |
|   Mona | 22    |     Artist     |

In the pipe format, the table uses pipes | to separate columns.

Orgtbl Format

Use the ‘orgtbl’ format for tables compatible with Emacs Org mode.

print(tabulate(data, headers, tablefmt='orgtbl', colalign=("center", "right", "left")))

Output:

|  Name  |   Age | Profession     |
|--------+-------+----------------|
| Ahmed  |    24 | Engineer       |
| Fatima |    27 | Data Scientist |
|  Mona  |    22 | Artist         |

The ‘orgtbl’ format creates tables suitable for Org mode, with the specified alignments applied to each column.

RST Format

To produce tables in reStructuredText format, use tablefmt='rst'.

print(tabulate(data, headers, tablefmt='rst', colalign=("left", "center", "right")))

Output:

======  =====  ==============
Name     Age       Profession
======  =====  ==============
Ahmed    24          Engineer
Fatima   27    Data Scientist
Mona     22            Artist
======  =====  ==============

The ‘rst’ format outputs tables compatible with reStructuredText, and the alignments control how the content is aligned within each cell.

 

Dynamic Alignment Based on Data Type

You can let tabulate automatically align data based on their types using stralign and numalign.

mixed_data = [
    ['ID101', 'Ahmed', 123.456],
    ['ID102', 'Fatima', 7890],
    ['ID103', 'Mona', 45.67]
]
headers_mixed = ['ID', 'Name', 'Score']
print(tabulate(mixed_data, headers_mixed, numalign="right", stralign="left"))

Output:

ID     Name      Score
-----  ------  -------
ID101  Ahmed   123.456
ID102  Fatima     7890
ID103  Mona      45.67

In this table, numeric data is right-aligned (numbers and floats), and string data is left-aligned.