Python script for converting .csv data to LaTeX tables.
- easy to use - just provide a .csv file
- optionally escapes commonly used special LaTeX characters, such as
$,&,%, etc. - user-defined separators - comma, tab, semicolon, etc.
- units for each column can be specified
- possible to define table caption and label
- columns' alignments can be customized
- can be used on multiple .csv files at the same time
- table can be added to the existing .tex file
- can generate only the fragment inside a tabular environment for inserting into another tex file
- when working with multiple .csv files, can optionally save each table in a different file
Python 3.4+
It uses booktabs package for creating the tables (nicer looking tables than the default tabular), which is included in TeXLive distribution and should be automatically installed in MiKTeX distribution.
For a test run all you need to do is download the file tably.py and put it in the directory where you would like to use it and run it by typing:
$ python tably.py filename.csv [arguments]If you wish to use it repeatedly, a good idea would be to make it executable and add it to your $PATH, which simplifies usage and makes it possible to use it in any directory:
$ tably filename.csv [arguments]See the folder examples for the input files used in the following examples.
The most basic example:
$ tably examples/example1.csvoutputs to console:
% \usepackage{booktabs} % move this to preamble and uncomment
\begin{table}[htb]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{@{}cccc@{}}
\toprule
Name & Qty & Price per kg & Price \\
\midrule
Apples & 10.2 & 5 & 51.0 \\
Bananas & 7.3 & 11 & 80.3 \\
Cherries & 5.7 & 30 & 171.0 \\
Dates & 3.5 & 90 & 315.0 \\
Eggs & 6.4 & 2 & 12.8 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}which is ready to be copied to your existing LaTeX document.
If you want the output to be appended to your existing .tex file, use the option -o filename.tex.
If you want to create a new file, you probably want to include a preamble too (so the new .tex document is ready to be build as .pdf), which can be done by passing the -p option (along with specifying outfile as above).
All options can be seen by using -h or --help:
$ tably -husage: tably [-h] [-a ALIGN] [-c CAPTION] [-i] [-k SKIP] [-l LABEL] [-n]
[-o OUTFILE] [-oo [PATH [PATH ...]]] [-p] [-s SEP]
[-u UNITS [UNITS ...]] [-e] [-f] [-ff] [-r]
files [files ...]
Creates LaTeX tables from .csv files
positional arguments:
files .csv file(s) containing the data you want to export.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-a ALIGN, --align ALIGN
Alignment for the columns of the table. Use `l`, `c`,
and `r` for left, center and right. Either one
character for all columns, or one character per
column. Default: c
-c CAPTION, --caption CAPTION
Caption of the table. Default: None
-i, --no-indent Pass this if you do not want to indent LaTeX source
code with 4 spaces per float. No difference in the
final result (pdf). Default: False
-k SKIP, --skip SKIP Number of rows in .csv to skip. Default: 0
-l LABEL, --label LABEL
Label of the table, for referencing it. Default: None
-n, --no-header By default, the first row of .csv is used as a table
header. Pass this option if there is no header.
Default: False
-o OUTFILE, --outfile OUTFILE
Choose an output file to save the results. The results
are appended to the file (added after the last line).
Default: None, prints to console.
-oo [PATH [PATH ...]], --separate-outfiles [PATH [PATH ...]]
When multiple .csv files need to be processed, pass
-oo to save each individual table in a separate .tex
file. To specifiy each individual output file, pass a
list of filenames after -oo. Alternatively, pass a
directory that will store all the output files. If no
filename/directory is passed after -oo, filenames of
.csv files will be used (with .tex extension).
-p, --preamble If selected, makes a whole .tex document (including
the preamble) ready to be built as .pdf. Useful when
trying to make a quick report. Default: False
-s SEP, --sep SEP Choose a separator between columns. If a file is tab-
separated, pass `t` or `tab`. If a file is semicolon-
separated, pass `s`, `semi` or `\;`.Default: `,`
(comma-separated)
-u UNITS [UNITS ...], --units UNITS [UNITS ...]
Provide units for each column. If column has no unit,
denote it by passing either `-`, `/` or `0`. If `--no-
header` is used, this argument is ignored.
-e, --no-escape If selected, do not escape special LaTeX characters.
-f, --fragment If selected, only output content inside tabular
environment (no preamble, table environment, etc.).
-ff, --fragment-skip-header
Equivalent to passing -k 1 -n -f (suppress header when
they are on the first row of .csv and pass -f).
-r, --replace If selected and -o or -oo is passed, overwrite any
existing output file.
More complex examples:
$ tably examples/example1.csv -o examples/table1.tex -p -a lrcr -u / kg $ $ -l tab:ex1 -c "Prices of breakfasts"Saves the output (-o) to examples/table1.tex file, containing a preamble (-p), alignment of the columns (-a) in the table is left-right-center-right (lrcr), units (-u) for each column are provided (/ represents no unit, same as 0 and -), table label (-l) is tab:ex1 and the caption (-c) is Prices of breakfasts.
The final result is at examples/table1.pdf.
$ tably examples/example2.csv -o examples/table2.tex -p -a r -n -k 3Here the alignment for a whole table is right (-a r), there is no header (-n) and we skip first three rows of .csv file (-k 3).
The final result is at examples/table2.pdf.
$ tably examples/example3.csv -ef -ro examples/table3.texWhen .csv files contain special LaTeX characters that are supposed to be reserved in the output, the --no-escape (-e) option suppresses the default escaping.
To include the output in a tex file that already contains a tabular environment by calling \input{table3.tex}, only the fragment (-f) inside the environment is generated.
If the output file already exists, it will be replaced by the output (-r).
$ tably examples/*.csv -oo 1.tex 2.tex 3.tex -pOutput for each table is saved into a different file with the --separate-outfiles (-oo) option and an optional list of output file names specified.
Alternatively, an output directory can be passed after -oo.
If no file name comes after -oo, the same file names for the .csv files will be used (replacing .csv extension with .tex, or appending .tex if no .csv extension is included in the filename).
There are online tools which can do the same stuff. Why would I use
tably?
Imagine yourself being stranded on a desert island with you laptop, but without internet, and you need to convert all those .csv's to .pdf before you can be rescued...
Can I pass multiple .csv files all at once?
You can, and this is best used if the data in all those .csv files is similar - same number of columns, same data types (so you can use the same alignment for all tables), etc. Like multiple outputs of a same software/machine/procedure.
If your .csv files are different, it might be easier to call tably multiple times, one .csv file per call.
I found a bug and/or have feature request, how can I contact you?
Please use this project's issue tracker. If you found a bug, please be as detailed as possible to make it easier for me to be able to reproduce it and fix it.