Master PrettyTable: Create Beautiful CLI Tables in Python

1. Introduction

When building a small Python tool on a Linux workstation to manage resources such as Alibaba Cloud ECS instances, displaying information in a plain command‑line list can be hard to read. PrettyTable provides a way to print attractive tables with excellent Chinese character support.

2. Installation

PrettyTable is not part of the Python standard library. Install it with:

pip install prettytable

3. Basic Example

The following script creates a table with headers ['ID','Cloud ID','Name','IP Address'] and adds several rows:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
import sys
from prettytable import PrettyTable
reload(sys)
sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')

table = PrettyTable(['编号','云编号','名称','IP地址'])

table.add_row(['1','server01','服务器01','172.16.0.1'])
# ... add more rows similarly ...
print(table)

The output shows a neatly bordered table.

4. Adding Data

Adding Rows with add_row

Rows must be provided as a list whose length matches the number of columns. Ensure the data aligns with the header fields.

Adding Columns with add_column

You can also add data column‑wise:

table.add_column('项目', ['编号','云编号','名称','IP地址'])
table.add_column('值', ['1','server01','服务器01','172.16.0.1'])
print(table)

Importing from CSV

PrettyTable can read a CSV file directly:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
import sys
from prettytable import PrettyTable, from_csv
reload(sys)
sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')

fp = open('res.csv', 'r')
table = from_csv(fp)
print(table)
fp.close()

Make sure the file has a .csv extension; Excel files renamed to .csv may cause errors.

Importing from a Database

Query results from SQLite (or MySQL) can be turned into a table:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
import sys, sqlite3
from prettytable import PrettyTable, from_db_cursor
reload(sys)
sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')

conn = sqlite3.connect('/tmp/aliyun.db')
cur = conn.cursor()
cur.execute('SELECT * FROM res')

table = from_db_cursor(cur)
print(table)

Importing from HTML

HTML tables can be parsed with from_html:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
import sys
from prettytable import PrettyTable, from_html
reload(sys)
sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')

html_string = '''<table>
<tr><th>编号</th><th>云编号</th><th>名称</th><th>IP地址</th></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>server01</td><td>服务器01</td><td>172.16.0.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>2</td><td>server02</td><td>服务器02</td><td>172.16.0.2</td></tr>
</table>'''

table = from_html(html_string)
print(table[0])

Note that from_html returns a list containing a PrettyTable object, so you need to print table[0].

5. Output Formats

Printing the table directly ( print(table)) shows a bordered ASCII table. To get HTML output, use:

print(table.get_html_string())

6. Selective Output

You can print specific columns:

print(table.get_string(fields=["编号", "IP地址"]))

Or limit rows by index:

print(table.get_string(start=0, end=2))

Tables also support slicing, e.g., new_table = table[0:2] and then print(new_table).

7. Sorting

Sort the table by a column, optionally in reverse order:

print(table.get_string(sortby="编号", reversesort=True))

8. Table Styles

Built‑in Styles

Use set_style() to apply predefined styles such as MSWORD_FRIENDLY, PLAIN_COLUMNS, DEFAULT, or RANDOM for a random style.

Custom Styles

Adjust alignment per column ( l, r, c), and control border characters:

table.align[1] = 'l'          # left‑align second column
table.border = True
table.junction_char = '$'
table.horizontal_char = '+'
table.vertical_char = '%'
print(table)

The example above produces a table with custom border symbols.

For more details, refer to the official PrettyTable documentation: https://github.com/jazzband/prettytable