tableio 0.3

Uniform way to write table data to and read from different file formats

tableio

The tableio package contains a number of classes providing a uniform way for a python program to write table data (rows of columns) to and read table data from a number of different common file formats.

An increasing number of users want output from programs to be in a format like a spreadsheet, and not the old fashoned raw text files. Similarly, many users want the data they feed into programs to be in a particular format (like a spreadsheet). The tableio package tries to make it easier for the programmer to fullfil requests like that.

The primary intended use is for data table output from a python program and data table input to a python program, where the programmer would like the user to be able to select the input and output file formats.

The support for spreadsheets is for reading and writing data. There is no intention to support reading or writing formulas. There is no support for running calculations in the spreadsheets (although nothing will stop a receiver of a spreadsheet created by tableio package to manually add formulas in the received spreadsheet).

Installing tableio

Installing tableio on mac and Linux

pip3 install --upgrade tableio

Installing tableio on Microsoft Windows

pip install --upgrade tableio

Supported formats

The currently supported formats are:

File format	Implementation	Can write	Can read
CSV	csv	yes	yes
Excel	OpenPyXL	yes	yes
Excel	XlsxWriter	yes	-
Excel	pylightxl	yes	yes
ODS	odfdo	yes	yes
HTML	mformat	yes	-
LaTeX	mformat	yes	-
docx	mformat	yes	-
md	mformat	yes	-
odt	mformat	yes	-
pdf	mformat	yes	-
reST	mformat	yes	-
rtf	mformat	yes	-
txt	mformat	yes	-

Features

All features are not available for all file formats. Often the file format restricts what features are reasonable in that format. Using a selection mechanism called Capabilities it is possible to select file format at runtime based on what features are essential. It is also possible to ignore some features when using a file format that cannot support that feature (like ignoring bold fomatting in CSV).

The main features are:

• File open modes: Create, Read or Update
• Writing tables from list of lists or list of dicts
• Writing headings before and between tables
• Reading tables to list of lists or list of dicts, including the headings before the table.
• formatting per cell or per row:
  • bold format
  • italics format
  • highlight colour
• reading and writing cells with data types:
  • str
  • bool
  • int
  • float
  • datetime
• writing a table as a filtered data range
• writing a table to a specific location in a spreadsheet (specified by a box)
• reading table data from a specific location in a spreadsheet (specified by a box)
• using multiple sheets in spreadsheets
• finding location where some data is present in spreadsheet and doing modifications at that position or at positions relative to that position.

Example programs

The best way to learn to use this package is to use the provided example programs: https://bitbucket.org/tom-bjorkholm/table-io/src/master/example/src/example/README.md.

API documentation

You can find the public API documentation at https://bitbucket.org/tom-bjorkholm/table-io/src/master/doc/api.md

You can find the protected API documentation at https://bitbucket.org/tom-bjorkholm/table-io/src/master/doc/protected_api.md The protected API documentation is only for developers that want to extend the framework with by adding their own classes as registered readers/writers to the factory.

Even though the API documentation exists, most users and programmers probably get a better start by reading the examples.

Version history

Version	Date	Python version	Comment
0.3	2023 Apr 01	3.12 or newer	Improved API, more backends
0.2	2026 Mar 28	3.12 or newer	More features, API changes
0.1	2026 Mar 23	3.12 or newer	First released version

Test summary

• Test result: 1010 passed in 14s
• No flake8 warnings.
• No mypy errors found.
• Built version(s): 0.3
• Build and test using Python 3.14.3