How to output a simple ascii table in PHP?

Question

I have some data like:

Array ( [0] => Array ( [a] => largeeeerrrrr [b] => 0 [c] => 47 [d] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [a] => bla [b] => 1 [c] => 0 [d] => 0 ) [2] => Array ( [a] => bla3 [b] => 0 [c] => 0 [d] => 0 ) ) 

And I want to create output, for example:

 title1 | title2 | title3 | title4 largeeeerrrrr | 0 | 47 | 0 bla | 1 | 0 | 0 bla3 | 0 | 0 | 0 

What is an easy way to achieve this in PHP? I would like to avoid using the library for such a simple task.

Answer 1

use printf

 $i=0; foreach( $itemlist as $items) { foreach ($items as $key => $value) { if ($i++==0) // print header { printf("[%010s]|", $key ); } printf("[%010s]|", $value); } echo "\n"; // don't forget the newline at the end of the row! } 

In this case, 10 spaces are used. As BoltClock says, you probably want to check the length of the longest row first, or your table will be split into long rows.

Answer 2

Another library with automatic column widths.

  <?php $renderer = new ArrayToTextTable($array); echo $renderer->getTable(); 

Answer 3

In addition to Byron Whitlock: You can use usort () with a callback to sort by the longest value of the array. Example:

 function lengthSort($a, $b){ $a = strlen($a); $b = strlen($b); if ($a == $b) { return 0; } return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1; } 

Answer 4

I know this question is very old, but it appears in my google search and maybe helps someone.

Here's fooobar.com/questions/1340837 / ... with good answers, especially this one that points to a Zend Framework module called Zend / Text / Table .

Hope this helps.

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Introduction to Documents

Zend \ Text \ Table is a component for creating text tables on the fly with various decorators. This can be useful if you want to send structured data to text messages that are used for single-spaced fonts, or to display table information in a CLI application. Zend \ Text \ Table supports multiline columns, colspan, and alignment.

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Main use

 $table = new Zend\Text\Table\Table(array('columnWidths' => array(10, 20))); // Either simple $table->appendRow(array('Zend', 'Framework')); // Or verbose $row = new Zend\Text\Table\Row(); $row->appendColumn(new Zend\Text\Table\Column('Zend')); $row->appendColumn(new Zend\Text\Table\Column('Framework')); $table->appendRow($row); echo $table; 

Output

 ┌──────────┬────────────────────┐ │Zend │Framework │ |──────────|────────────────────| │Zend │Framework │ └──────────┴────────────────────┘ 

Answer 5

There is another recipe: http://jkeks.com/archives/53

Text tables are converted to table (\ t) to brighten the view