Markdown table prettifier

Makes tables more readable for humans. Compatible with the Markdown writer plugin's table formatter feature in Atom.

Feature highlights

• Remove redundant ending table border if the beginning has no border, so the table will not end with "|".
• Create missing ending table border if the beginning already has a border, so the table will end with "|".
• Save space by not right-padding the last column if the table has no border.
• Support empty columns inside tables.
• Support column alignment options with ":".
• Find and format multiple tables.
• Support `code blocks` and ignore blocks with <!-- markdown-table-prettify-ignore-start --> and <!-- markdown-table-prettify-ignore-end -->.
• Support indented tables.

Visual Studio Code

The extension is available for markdown language mode. It can either prettify a selection (Format Selection) or the entire document (Format Document). A VSCode command called Prettify markdown tables is also available to format the currently opened document.

Configurable settings:

• The maximum texth length of a selection/entire document to consider for formatting. Default: 1M chars (limit does not apply from CLI or NPM).
• Additional languages to support formatting for besides markdown. See possible configurable values here. Default: [ ].
• Keyboard shortcut to prettify the currently opened markdown document. Default: CTRL+ALT+M (CMD+ALT+M on Mac).

NPM

The core formatting logic is available as an NPM package: npm install --save markdown-table-prettify. The Typescript code is compiled down to ES5 and shipped inside the package.

It currently exposes the entry point also used by the CLI. It can be used from regular NodeJS or web apps:

import { CliPrettify } from 'markdown-table-prettify';
// or
const { CliPrettify } = require('markdown-table-prettify');

console.log(CliPrettify.prettify(
`hello|world
-|-
foo|bar`));

/* Output:
hello | world
------|------
foo   | bar
*/

Docker

The core formatting logic is available as a node docker image: docker pull darkriszty/prettify-md.

Available features from docker:

• To prettify a file: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md < input.md.
• To prettify a file and save the output: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md < input.md > output.md.
• To check whether a file is prettyfied or not: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md --check < input.md. This will fail with an exception and return code 1 if the file is not prettyfied.

CLI

Formatting files or checking if they're already formatted is possible from the command line. This requires node and npm (optionally also npx).

Available features from the command line:

• To prettify a file: npm run --silent prettify-md < input.md.
• To prettify a file and save the output: npm run --silent prettify-md < input.md > output.md.
• To check whether a file is prettyfied or not: npm run --silent check-md < input.md. This will fail with an exception and return code 1 if the file is not prettyfied.

Note: the --silent switch sets the NPM log level to silent, which is useful to hide the executed file name and concentrate on the actual output.

Installation

To access the CLI, the extension can either be used from the Github sources, from the already instaledl VSCode extension or from NPM.

Compiling from the source code

• Download the source code.
• Go to the extension directory.
• Run npm install.
• Run npm run compile.

Using the already installed VSCode extension

Locate the installed extension path. The typical location of the installed extension:

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions\darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-{version}
• macOS: ~/.vscode/extensions/darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-{version}
• Linux: ~/.vscode/extensions/darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-{version}

Getting it from NPM

Install the NPM package npm install -g markdown-table-prettify. Optionally, use npx to prettify files: npx markdown-table-prettify < input.md (instead of npm run --silent prettify-md < input.md).

Known Issues

• Tables with mixed character widths (eg: CJK) are not always properly formatted (issue #4).