Python how to print pretty table from dictionary or list

John D K -

Python offers several different ways of beautifying the output of dictionary or list. You can add different formatting in order to make output better and much more easier to read. Lets check several examples:

Python pretty print from dictionary

Very frequently the information is extracted in a dictionary. In order to make the output easier for reading you need to do several small tricks. One way is by using format functions of strings. The example below demonstrate it:

d = {1: ["Python", 33.2, 'UP'],
     2: ["Java", 23.54, 'DOWN'],
     3: ["Ruby", 17.22, 'UP'],
     10: ["Lua", 10.55, 'DOWN'],
     5: ["Groovy", 9.22, 'DOWN'],
     6: ["C", 1.55, 'UP']
     }

print ("{:<8} {:<15} {:<10} {:<10}".format('Pos','Lang','Percent','Change'))
for k, v in d.items():
    lang, perc, change = v
    print ("{:<8} {:<15} {:<10} {:<10}".format(k, lang, perc, change))

result:

Pos      Lang            Percent    Change    
1        Python          33.2       UP        
2        Java            23.54      DOWN      
3        Ruby            17.22      UP        
5        Groovy          9.22       DOWN      
6        C               1.55       UP        
10       Lua             10.55      DOWN

If you print without formatting you will get ugly and unreadable output like:

Pos, Lang, Percent, Change
1, Python, 33.2, UP
2, Java, 23.54, DOWN
3, Ruby, 17.22, UP
5, Groovy, 9.22, DOWN
6, C, 1.55, UP
10, Lua, 10.55, DOWN

Python pretty print from list of list

If you want to print information as a score table team against team like:

                  Liquid  Virtus.pro
      Liquid           1           2
  Virtus.pro           x           1

You can do it by using method format again:

dota_teams = ["Liquid", "Virtus.pro", "PSG.LGD", "Team Secret"]
data = [[1, 2, 1, 'x'],
        ['x', 1, 1, 'x'],
        [1, 'x', 0, 1],
        [2, 0, 2, 1]]

format_row = "{:>12}" * (len(dota_teams) + 1)
print(format_row.format("", *dota_teams))
for team, row in zip(dota_teams, data):
    print(format_row.format(team, *row))

result:

                  Liquid  Virtus.pro     PSG.LGD Team Secret
      Liquid           1           2           1           x
  Virtus.pro           x           1           1           x
     PSG.LGD           1           x           0           1
 Team Secret           2           0           2           1

Python pretty print from list with tabulate

You can use python packages like: tabulate. The advantage of using packages lie tabulate for pretty print of lists and dictionaries is: there's no need to do custom settings and format every time you add new item to the list. In other words this is not hardcoded solution:

from tabulate import tabulate
data = [[1, 'Liquid', 24, 12], 
        [2, 'Virtus.pro', 19, 14], 
        [3, 'PSG.LGD', 15, 19], 
        [4,'Team Secret', 10, 20]]
print (tabulate(data, headers=["Pos", "Team", "Win", "Lose"]))

This would result in:

  Pos  Team           Win    Lose
-----  -----------  -----  ------
    1  Liquid          24      12
    2  Virtus.pro      19      14
    3  PSG.LGD         15      19
    4  Team Secret     10      20

There are other solutions for pretty print of list or dict with Python like: PrettyTable, texttable, beautifultable. You can check if they fit your needs better.

Python pretty print from list/dict with pandas

Pandas is another good solution if you want to print out your data in good looking table which allows many customizations and support many different formats like: csv, dict, json etc.

import pandas
data = [[1, 'Liquid', 24, 12],
        [2, 'Virtus.pro', 19, 14],
        [3, 'PSG.LGD', 15, 19],
        [4,'Team Secret', 10, 20]]

headers=["Pos", "Team", "Win", "Lose"]


print(pandas.DataFrame(data, headers, headers))
print(pandas.DataFrame(data, headers))

This first code will result in:

pandas.DataFrame(data, headers, headers)

      Pos         Team  Win  Lose
Pos     1       Liquid   24    12
Team    2   Virtus.pro   19    14
Win     3      PSG.LGD   15    19
Lose    4  Team Secret   10    20

This second one will result in:

pandas.DataFrame(data, headers)

      0            1   2   3
Pos   1       Liquid  24  12
Team  2   Virtus.pro  19  14
Win   3      PSG.LGD  15  19
Lose  4  Team Secret  10  20