beautifultable

What it is and what it does

BeautifulTable is a Python library for rendering tabular data in the terminal with a clean, customizable appearance. It provides a BeautifulTable class that lets you build tables row-by-row or column-by-column, apply predefined styles, set custom borders and alignment, and handle Unicode and colored text. The package depends only on wcwidth for proper column width calculation.

The library is designed for developers who need to print structured data to a console without external dependencies or complex configuration. You can add rows and columns dynamically, set headers, apply ANSI color sequences, and choose from multiple built-in styles. It also supports CSV and dataframe import/export (added in v1.1.0) and streaming tables for slow data retrieval.

Use it for:

• Display query results or database records in a formatted terminal table for CLI tools and scripts
• Format structured logs or status reports with aligned columns and borders for readability
• Build interactive terminal dashboards that refresh table data without redrawing the entire output
• Export tabular data to CSV or pandas DataFrames directly from a BeautifulTable instance
• Create styled ASCII tables in documentation or terminal-based applications with minimal code

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Prints tabular data to the terminal in a formatted, visually appealing layout with customizable borders, alignment, padding, and styling.

Yes, if you need simple, customizable terminal table formatting and can accept that the project is no longer actively maintained. The package is stable, has no known vulnerabilities, and handles the common use case well. Install it for one-off scripts or tools where you control the Python version; avoid it for production systems requiring ongoing support or compatibility updates.

Install

beautifultable on PyPI

pip install beautifultable

uv add beautifultable

poetry add beautifultable

Installing beautifultable

Before you install

Low install friction; single runtime dependency (wcwidth). Maintenance status is abandoned—last release was in 2022 and no commits since then, though the repository remains public and unfrozen.

License in practice

MIT license is permissive; you may use, modify, and distribute this package freely in proprietary or open-source projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

from beautifultable import BeautifulTable
table = BeautifulTable()
table.rows.append(["Jacob", 1, "boy"])
table.columns.header = ["name", "rank", "gender"]
print(table)

Verify before relying

• Whether the package is actively maintained or accepting pull requests despite the abandoned status flag
• Compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.10 (classifiers list 3.7–3.10 only)

Package facts

Evidence: beautifultable-1.1.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: table, terminal, ascii

Tags

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