ConsoleTablesPrinter 1.1.3

ConsoleTablesPrinter

A simple, flexible, and customizable table printer for .NET console applications.
Easily print objects and collections as styled console tables with minimal setup.

Features

• Print single objects or lists as formatted console tables
• Customizable table styles, borders, colors, padding, and "animations"
• Support for property-level formatting and visibility using attributes
• Multiple built-in border styles with UTF-8 or ASCII fallback
• Supports cell text alignment and custom foreground/background colors
• Easy to use extension methods for quick printing

Installation

Install via NuGet:

dotnet add package ConsoleTablePrinter --version 1.1.3

Or using the NuGet Package Manager:

Install-Package ConsoleTablePrinter -Version 1.1.3

Usage

Print a list of objects

using ConsoleTablesPrinter;
class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string? Name { get; set; }
    public string? Email { get; set; }
    public DateOnly? DoB { get; set; }  
    public string? City { get; set; } 
}
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var people = new List<Person>
        {
            new() { Id=1, Name = "Alice Johnson", Email="Alice@example.com", DoB = new DateOnly(1962,4,13), City = "Seattle" },
            new() { Id=2, Name = "Bob Smith", Email="bob@example.com", DoB =  new DateOnly(1991,7,27), City = "Portland" },
            new() { Id=3, Name = "Charlie Potato", Email="charlie.potato@example.com", DoB=  new DateOnly(1962,4,13), City = "San Francisco" }
        };
        people.PrintAsTable();
    }
}

Print a single object

var person = new Person() { Id=1, Name = "Alice Johnson", Email="Alice@eample.com", DoB = new DateOnly(1962,4,13), City = "Seattle" };
person.PrintAsTable();

When printing a single object, the table pivots into a 2-column layout showing property names and values.

Customize Table Style

You can customize the look and feel of your tables using the TableStyle class. Below are the available styling properties:

Print Mode

Specifies the print mode to use when rendering the table. Controls whether full styling is applied or a simplified Markdown format is produced.

Examples

Normal Mode (default):

var style = new TableStyle
{
    PrintMode = TablePrintModes.Normal, // or omit this line completely
    // other styling options here
};

myList.PrintListAsTable(style);

Markdown Mode

people.PrintAsTable(o => o.PrintMode = TablePrintModes.Markdown); // OR
people.PrintAsTable(new TableStyle() { PrintMode = TablePrintModes.Markdown });

var person = new Person() { Id = 1, Name = "Alice Johnson", Email = "Alice@eample.com", DoB = new DateOnly(1962, 4, 13), City = "Seattle" };
person.PrintAsTable(O => O.PrintMode = TablePrintModes.Markdown);

Borders[^1]

Colors and Cell Styles[^1]

Both HeaderCellStyle and DataCellStyle are of type CellStyle[^1]

Padding & Spacing[^1]

Row Layout[^1]

"Animation"[^1]

Supported Border Styles[^1]

Example Usage

Styles can be applied either inline via a lambda or by passing a pre-configured TableStyle object to PrintAsTable().

people.PrintAsTable(style =>
{
    style.BorderStyle = BorderStyles.SingleBoldLine;
    style.CellHorizontalPadding = 2;
    style.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.DarkBlue;
    style.BorderColor = ConsoleColor.Cyan;
    style.HeaderCellStyle = new CellStyle()
    {
        BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Cyan,
        ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.DarkBlue,
        TextAlignment = TextAlignments.Center
    };
});

Or

people.PrintAsTable(new TableStyle()
{
    BorderStyle = BorderStyles.SingleToDoubleLine,
    UseRowSeparator = true,
    RowSeparatorStyle = BorderStyles.SingleLine,
    BorderColor = ConsoleColor.Red,
    HorizontalPadding = 5,
    VerticalPadding = 1,
           
});

Attributes for column customization

Use [TablePrintCol] attribute on your model properties to control how columns display. These will override other styling defined on the table that affect the property.

class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    [TablePrintCol(DisplayName = "Full Name")]
    public string? Name { get; set; }

    [TablePrintCol(Format = "C", CellTextAlignment = TextAlignments.Right, HeaderTextColor = ConsoleColor.Red, CellBgColor = ConsoleColor.DarkGray)]    
    public double Salary { get; set; }

    [TablePrintCol(Hidden = true)]
    public string? SecretCode { get; set; }
    
    public string? Email { get; set; }

    [TablePrintCol(DisplayName ="Date of Birth",Format = "MMM dd, yyyy",CellTextColor =ConsoleColor.Magenta)]
    public DateOnly? DoB { get; set; }
    public string? City { get; set; }
}

When printing a list of Person:

people.PrintAsTable(new TableStyle()
        {
            BorderStyle = BorderStyles.SingleToDoubleLine,
            UseRowSeparator = true,
            RowSeparatorStyle = BorderStyles.SingleLine,
            BorderColor = ConsoleColor.Red,
            HorizontalPadding = 5,
            VerticalPadding = 1,
            HeaderCellStyle = new CellStyle()
            {
                BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Yellow,
                ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black,
            }
        });

When printing a single Person object, styling is preserved and applied to the pivoted layout:

ConsoleTablePrinter.DefaultStyle = new TableStyle()
{
    BorderStyle = BorderStyles.SingleToDoubleLine,
    UseRowSeparator = true,
    RowSeparatorStyle = BorderStyles.SingleLine,
    BorderColor = ConsoleColor.Red,
    HorizontalPadding = 5,
    VerticalPadding = 1,
    HeaderCellStyle = new CellStyle()
    {
        BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Yellow,
        ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black,
    }
};
var person = new Person() { Id = 1, Name = "Alice Johnson", Email = "Alice@eample.com", DoB = new DateOnly(1962, 4, 13), City = "Seattle" };
people.PrintAsTable();
person.PrintAsTable();

Supported attributes:

The following attributes can be used on the model properties

TableStyle default

You can set a default style globally:

ConsoleTablePrinter.DefaultStyle = new TableStyle()
{
    BorderStyle = BorderStyles.SingleBoldLine,
    CellHorizontalPadding = 1,
    BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black,
    BorderColor = ConsoleColor.Green,
};

If no style is specified in PrintAsTable(), this default will be used.

Console Colors: ConsoleColor vs. ANSI Escape Codes

When printing styled tables, ConsoleTablePrinter supports both:

• ✅ Standard .NET console coloring, using Console.ForegroundColor / Console.BackgroundColor.
• ✅ Advanced coloring via ANSI escape sequences, like 256-color or 24-bit RGB.

Option 1: Using Console.ForegroundColor / Console.BackgroundColor

If you're setting the console color like this:

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White; // set the foreground
Console.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black; // Set background 
Console.Clear(); // Apply colors to the whole window by clearing the screen

You do not need to configure anything extra.

ConsoleTablePrinter automatically detects and restores these colors when rendering styled tables.

Option 2: Using ANSI Color Escape Sequences

If you're writing ANSI sequences directly, like:

string? ansifg = "\u001b[38;2;200;100;200m";
string? ansibg = "\u001b[48;2;130;30;30m";

Console.WriteLine(ansifg);  // set the foreground
Console.Write(ansibg);      // Set background 
Console.Write("\u001b[2J"); // Apply colors to the whole window by clearing the screen

Then the console doesn't track the current color state the way .NET APIs do.
So ConsoleTablePrinter won’t know how to reset your original colors after it's done printing.

To handle this properly, you must tell the printer what your default colors are:

ConsoleTablePrinter.ConsoleAnsiFg = ansifg;
ConsoleTablePrinter.ConsoleAnsiBg = ansibg;

This allows it to safely reset the console to your app's original appearance.

Summary: When You Need ConsoleAnsiFg / ConsoleAnsiBg

If you're not sure whether you're using ANSI:

• If you're manually writing \u001b[ codes, you're using ANSI.
• If you're only setting ConsoleColor values, you're not.

If you need more information about ANSI Escape Sequences, you can take a look at this github resource

Version History

License

MIT License © Sam Farah

Contact

Feel free to open issues or contribute on GitHub.
GitHub Repository

Enjoy nicely formatted tables in your console apps!

[^1]: When PrintMode is set to TablePrintModes.Markdown, styling properties such as colors, borders, and cell styles are ignored, and output is simplified to plain Markdown format. [^2]: If VerticalPadding=0, there will be an extra line under the table but not above it. In Markdown mode it will behave as if it is set to 0