Build Captivating Display Tables in Python With Great Tables | Real Python Podcast
Do you need help making data tables in Python look interesting and attractive? How can you create beautiful display-ready tables as easily as charts and graphs in Python? This week on the show, we speak with Richard Iannone and Michael Chow from Posit about the Great Tables Python library.
👉 Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/214/
Michael and Richard discuss the design philosophy and history behind creating display tables. We dig into the grammar of tables, the background of the project, and an ingenious way to build a collection of examples for a library.
We briefly cover how Richard and Michael started contributing to open source. We also discuss practicing data skills with challenges and resources like Tidy Tuesday.
This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap.
Topics:
00:00:00 -- Introduction
00:02:00 -- Michael's background in open source
00:04:07 -- Rich's background in open source
00:05:27 -- Advice for someone starting out
00:08:55 -- What do you mean by the term "display" table
00:11:32 -- What components were missing from other tables?
00:13:31 -- Using examples to explain features
00:16:09 -- Why was there an absence of this functionality in Python?
00:19:35 -- A progressive approach and the grammar of tables
00:21:26 -- Sponsor: Mailtrap
00:22:01 -- The design philosophy of great tables
00:25:31 -- Nanoplots, spark lines, and column spanners
00:27:06 -- Building a gallery of examples
00:28:56 -- Heat mapping cells and automatically adjusting text color
00:32:54 -- Output formats for the tables
00:34:46 -- Building in accessibility
00:36:55 -- Dependencies
00:37:42 -- What is the common workflow?
00:41:39 -- Video Course Spotlight
00:43:15 -- Adding graphics
00:46:41 -- Using a table contest to get examples
00:49:47 -- quartodoc and documenting the project
00:55:00 -- Tidy Tuesday and data science community
01:00:29 -- What are you excited about in the world of Python?
01:03:46 -- What do you want to learn next?
01:08:05 -- How can people follow the work you do online?
01:09:57 -- Thanks and goodbye
👉 Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/214/