Table Helper

When building console applications, Symfony provides several utilities for rendering tabular data. The simplest option is to use the table methods from Symfony Style. While convenient, this approach doesn't allow customization of the table's design. For more control and advanced features, use the Table console helper explained in this article.

To display a table, use Table, set the headers, set the rows and then render the table:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\Table;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
// ...

class SomeCommand extends Command
{
    public function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int
    {
        $table = new Table($output);
        $table
            ->setHeaders(['ISBN', 'Title', 'Author'])
            ->setRows([
                ['99921-58-10-7', 'Divine Comedy', 'Dante Alighieri'],
                ['9971-5-0210-0', 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Charles Dickens'],
                ['960-425-059-0', 'The Lord of the Rings', 'J. R. R. Tolkien'],
                ['80-902734-1-6', 'And Then There Were None', 'Agatha Christie'],
            ])
        ;
        $table->render();

        return Command::SUCCESS;
    }
}
    

This outputs:

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        +---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| ISBN          | Title                    | Author           |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| 99921-58-10-7 | Divine Comedy            | Dante Alighieri  |
| 9971-5-0210-0 | A Tale of Two Cities     | Charles Dickens  |
| 960-425-059-0 | The Lord of the Rings    | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| 80-902734-1-6 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie  |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
    

Adding Table Separators

You can add a table separator anywhere in the output by passing an instance of TableSeparator as a row:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableSeparator;

$table->setRows([
    ['99921-58-10-7', 'Divine Comedy', 'Dante Alighieri'],
    ['9971-5-0210-0', 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Charles Dickens'],
    new TableSeparator(),
    ['960-425-059-0', 'The Lord of the Rings', 'J. R. R. Tolkien'],
    ['80-902734-1-6', 'And Then There Were None', 'Agatha Christie'],
]);
    

This outputs:

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        +---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| ISBN          | Title                    | Author           |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| 99921-58-10-7 | Divine Comedy            | Dante Alighieri  |
| 9971-5-0210-0 | A Tale of Two Cities     | Charles Dickens  |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| 960-425-059-0 | The Lord of the Rings    | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| 80-902734-1-6 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie  |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
    

Adding Table Titles

You can optionally display titles at the top and the bottom of the table:

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        // ...
$table->setHeaderTitle('Books');
$table->setFooterTitle('Page 1/2');
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +---------------+----------- Books --------+------------------+
| ISBN          | Title                    | Author           |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| 99921-58-10-7 | Divine Comedy            | Dante Alighieri  |
| 9971-5-0210-0 | A Tale of Two Cities     | Charles Dickens  |
+---------------+--------------------------+------------------+
| 960-425-059-0 | The Lord of the Rings    | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| 80-902734-1-6 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie  |
+---------------+--------- Page 1/2 -------+------------------+
    

Setting the Column Widths Explicitly

By default, the width of the columns is calculated automatically based on their contents. Use the setColumnWidths() method to set the column widths explicitly:

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        // ...
$table->setColumnWidths([10, 0, 30]);
$table->render();
    

In this example, the first column width will be 10, the last column width will be 30 and the second column width will be calculated automatically because of the 0 value.

You can also set the width individually for each column with the setColumnWidth() method. Its first argument is the column index (starting from 0) and the second argument is the column width:

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        // ...
$table->setColumnWidth(0, 10);
$table->setColumnWidth(2, 30);
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +---------------+--------------------------+--------------------------------+
| ISBN          | Title                    | Author                         |
+---------------+--------------------------+--------------------------------+
| 99921-58-10-7 | Divine Comedy            | Dante Alighieri                |
| 9971-5-0210-0 | A Tale of Two Cities     | Charles Dickens                |
+---------------+--------------------------+--------------------------------+
| 960-425-059-0 | The Lord of the Rings    | J. R. R. Tolkien               |
| 80-902734-1-6 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie                |
+---------------+--------------------------+--------------------------------+
    

Note that the defined column widths are always considered as the minimum column widths. If the contents don't fit, the given column width is increased up to the longest content length. That's why in the previous example the first column has a 13 character length although the user defined 10 as its width.

If you prefer to wrap long contents in multiple rows, use the setColumnMaxWidth() method:

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        // ...
$table->setColumnMaxWidth(0, 5);
$table->setColumnMaxWidth(1, 10);
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +-------+------------+--------------------------------+
| ISBN  | Title      | Author                         |
+-------+------------+--------------------------------+
| 99921 | Divine Com | Dante Alighieri                |
| -58-1 | edy        |                                |
| 0-7   |            |                                |
|                (the rest of the rows...)            |
+-------+------------+--------------------------------+
    

Rendering Vertical Tables

By default, table contents are displayed horizontally. You can change this behavior via the setVertical() method:

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        // ...
$table->setVertical();
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +------------------------------+
|   ISBN: 99921-58-10-7        |
|  Title: Divine Comedy        |
| Author: Dante Alighieri      |
|------------------------------|
|   ISBN: 9971-5-0210-0        |
|  Title: A Tale of Two Cities |
| Author: Charles Dickens      |
+------------------------------+
    

Customizing the Table Style

The table style can be changed to any built-in styles via setStyle():

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        // this 'default' style is the one used when no style is specified
$table->setStyle('default');
    

Built-in Table Styles

Compact:

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        $table->setStyle('compact');
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        ISBN          Title                    Author
99921-58-10-7 Divine Comedy            Dante Alighieri
9971-5-0210-0 A Tale of Two Cities     Charles Dickens
960-425-059-0 The Lord of the Rings    J. R. R. Tolkien
80-902734-1-6 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
    

Borderless:

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        $table->setStyle('borderless');
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        =============== ========================== ==================
 ISBN            Title                      Author
=============== ========================== ==================
 99921-58-10-7   Divine Comedy              Dante Alighieri
 9971-5-0210-0   A Tale of Two Cities       Charles Dickens
 960-425-059-0   The Lord of the Rings      J. R. R. Tolkien
 80-902734-1-6   And Then There Were None   Agatha Christie
=============== ========================== ==================
    

Box:

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        $table->setStyle('box');
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        ┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│ ISBN          │ Title                    │ Author           │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ 99921-58-10-7 │ Divine Comedy            │ Dante Alighieri  │
│ 9971-5-0210-0 │ A Tale of Two Cities     │ Charles Dickens  │
│ 960-425-059-0 │ The Lord of the Rings    │ J. R. R. Tolkien │
│ 80-902734-1-6 │ And Then There Were None │ Agatha Christie  │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘
    

Double box:

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        $table->setStyle('box-double');
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        ╔═══════════════╤══════════════════════════╤══════════════════╗
║ ISBN          │ Title                    │ Author           ║
╠═══════════════╪══════════════════════════╪══════════════════╣
║ 99921-58-10-7 │ Divine Comedy            │ Dante Alighieri  ║
║ 9971-5-0210-0 │ A Tale of Two Cities     │ Charles Dickens  ║
║ 960-425-059-0 │ The Lord of the Rings    │ J. R. R. Tolkien ║
║ 80-902734-1-6 │ And Then There Were None │ Agatha Christie  ║
╚═══════════════╧══════════════════════════╧══════════════════╝
    

Making a Custom Table Style

If the built-in styles do not fit your needs, define your own:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableStyle;

// by default, this is based on the default style
$tableStyle = new TableStyle();

// customizes the style
$tableStyle
    ->setHorizontalBorderChars('<fg=magenta>|</>')
    ->setVerticalBorderChars('<fg=magenta>-</>')
    ->setDefaultCrossingChar(' ')
;

// uses the custom style for this table
$table->setStyle($tableStyle);
    

Here is a full list of things you can customize:

Tip

You can also register a style globally:

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        // registers the style under the colorful name
Table::setStyleDefinition('colorful', $tableStyle);

// applies the custom style for the given table
$table->setStyle('colorful');
    

This method can also be used to override a built-in style.

In addition to the built-in table styles, you can also apply different styles to each table cell via TableCellStyle:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\Table;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableCellStyle;

$table = new Table($output);

$table->setRows([
    [
        '978-0804169127',
        new TableCell(
            'Divine Comedy',
            [
                'style' => new TableCellStyle([
                    'align' => 'center',
                    'fg' => 'red',
                    'bg' => 'green',

                    // or
                    'cellFormat' => '<info>%s</info>',
                ])
            ]
        )
    ],
]);

$table->render();
    

Spanning Multiple Columns and Rows

To make a table cell that spans multiple columns you can use a TableCell:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\Table;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableCell;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableSeparator;

$table = new Table($output);
$table
    ->setHeaders(['ISBN', 'Title', 'Author'])
    ->setRows([
        ['99921-58-10-7', 'Divine Comedy', 'Dante Alighieri'],
        new TableSeparator(),
        [new TableCell('This value spans 3 columns.', ['colspan' => 3])],
    ])
;
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +---------------+---------------+-----------------+
| ISBN          | Title         | Author          |
+---------------+---------------+-----------------+
| 99921-58-10-7 | Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri |
+---------------+---------------+-----------------+
| This value spans 3 columns.                     |
+---------------+---------------+-----------------+
    

Tip

You can create a multiple-line page title using a header cell that spans the entire table width:

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        $table->setHeaders([
    [new TableCell('Main table title', ['colspan' => 3])],
    ['ISBN', 'Title', 'Author'],
]);
// ...
    

This outputs:

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        +-------+-------+--------+
| Main table title       |
+-------+-------+--------+
| ISBN  | Title | Author |
+-------+-------+--------+
| ...                    |
+-------+-------+--------+
    

In a similar way you can span multiple rows:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\Table;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\TableCell;

$table = new Table($output);
$table
    ->setHeaders(['ISBN', 'Title', 'Author'])
    ->setRows([
        [
            '978-0521567817',
            'De Monarchia',
            new TableCell("Dante Alighieri\nspans multiple rows", ['rowspan' => 2]),
        ],
        ['978-0804169127', 'Divine Comedy'],
    ])
;
$table->render();
    

This outputs:

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        +----------------+---------------+---------------------+
| ISBN           | Title         | Author              |
+----------------+---------------+---------------------+
| 978-0521567817 | De Monarchia  | Dante Alighieri     |
| 978-0804169127 | Divine Comedy | spans multiple rows |
+----------------+---------------+---------------------+
    

You can use the colspan and rowspan options at the same time, which allows you to create any table layout you may wish.

Modifying Rendered Tables

The render() method requires passing the entire table contents. However, sometimes that information is not available beforehand because it's generated dynamically. In those cases, use the appendRow() method, which takes the same arguments as the addRow() method, to add rows at the bottom of an already rendered table.

The only requirement to append rows is that the table must be rendered inside a Console output section:

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        use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\Table;
// ...

class SomeCommand extends Command
{
    public function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int
    {
        $section = $output->section();
        $table = new Table($section);

        $table->addRow(['Love']);
        $table->render();

        $table->appendRow(['Symfony']);

        return Command::SUCCESS;
    }
}
    

This outputs:

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        +---------+
| Love    |
| Symfony |
+---------+
    

Tip

You can create multiple lines using the addRows() method:

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        // ...
$table->addRows([
    ['Hello', 'World'],
    ['Love', 'Symfony'],
]);
$table->render();
// ...
    

This outputs:

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        +-------+---------+
| Hello | World   |
| Love  | Symfony |
+-------+---------+
    

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.

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