Useful .Net Libraries #01

This library has several versions that try to extend its capabilities, or make it completely new with completely rebuilt functionality. Also, if you are looking for more advanced table control capabilities in the console, you might be interested in the libraries BetterConsoleTable or YetAnotherConsoleTables. I personally haven’t used them, I’m writing about it so you don’t have to dig through the whole internet.

As the name suggests, this library is used to generate textual tables in Classic, Minimalist and Markdown versions. The library available at https://github.com/khalidabuhakmeh/ConsoleTables is small and very easy to use. Actually, it consists of one file that is responsible for formatting the output. Below is a piece of code from the documentation with my comments:

An example of using ConsoleTables from the documentation along with my comment

var table = new ConsoleTable("one", "two", "three");
table.AddRow(1, 2, 3)
        .AddRow("this line should be longer", "yes it is", "oh");

table.Write(); (1)
// or
Console.WriteLine(table.ToMinimalString()); (2)

var rows = Enumerable.Repeat(new Something(), 10);

ConsoleTable
    .From<Something>(rows)
    .Configure(o => o.NumberAlignment = Alignment.Right)
    .Write(Format.Alternative); (1)

When passing rows, be careful to, pass individual elements or entire arrays to the method. *Adding lists may result in an error! Therefore, try to add .ToArray() at the end of LINQ expressions.

1	Using the `Write` method will print the entire table to the console. Which for many applications can be completely pointless. Therefore, I recommend using
2	`table.toMinimalString()` or similar. They return the table as a string and you can send it anywhere you want.