NAME

       showtable - Show data in nicely formatted columns

USAGE

       showtable [-options] [file]

DESCRIPTION

       Showtable reads an input data stream and displays it in a nicely formatted listing, with exact formatting
       depending upon the options.  The input stream, file or "STDIN" by default should consist of data
       separated by tabs or the defined separator character (see -d).

       The actual output formatting is peformed by the ShowTable module.

OPTIONS

       There are two general sets of options: those which help determine the format of the input, and those
       which determine the format of the output.

   Options affecting input
       -break=str
                 Set the inter-column break string to "str".  The default is a tab (""\t"").  If -strip is also
                 given, blanks surrounding the break string will also be ignored.

       -dstr     This is the same as "-break="str.

       -nod(ashes)
                 Do not ignore lines of separators, such as dashes, equal signs, or underlines.  If -nodashes is
                 given, and these lines do occur in the stream, they will be treated as normal data.

       -ti(tles)[=NN]
                 Treat the first NN rows of data as column titles; multiple words in the column titles may wrap
                 vertically. If NN is omitted, it defaults to 1.  No -titles option is the same as -titles=0.

       -in(put)=type
                 Set the input type as type, which can be one of: box, list, table, or simple.  A simple-type
                 table is the same as a table-type, but no wrapping characters are recognized.

       -s(trip)  Strip blanks from around the column values.

       -nos(trip)
                 Do not strip blanks from the input.  Useful if there is formatted or aligned data within a
                 boxed table.

   Options affecting output
       -t(able)  Use a table format for output, with wrapping of column values longer than the given or
                 determined column widths.  See Data::ShowTable for more details.

       -si(mple) Use a simple table format, without any wrapping of column values.  See Data::ShowTable for more
                 details.

       -l(ist)   Use a list style format.  See Data::ShowTable for more details.

       -b(ox)    Use a "boxed" style table.  See Data::ShowTable for more details.

       -ht(ml)   Use HTML-formating.  See Data::ShowTable for more details.

       -ti(tles)=name1,name2,...,nameN
                 Define the column names explicitly.  This is useful for naming columns of data from "STDIN",
                 when showtable is being used as a filter.  The first column name, name1, cannot begin with a
                 digit.  This option allows any column titles obtained from the input to be overridden.

       -noh(eaders)
                 Do not output any headers on the tables; -titles=0 implies this option.

       -fn1[,n2, ..., nN]
                 Select fields numbered n1, n2, etc., to display.  Each nN is a field index, or a range of
                 indexes in the form: "N"-"M" The default is to show all the fields in each row.  Fields are
                 numbered from 1.  An example:  to show the first, and three through five fields of the
                 "/etc/passwd" file:

                     showtable -d: -f1,2-5 /etc/passwd

       -fields=fname1[,fname2, ..., fnameN]
                 Select the named fields to display.  The field names must be available, either through the data
                 stream, or by using the -titles option.   The field names given must match the existing field
                 names exactly.

                 Using the file "/etc/passwd" for another example: to show the same first two fields, by name:

                     showtable -d: -titles=Login,UID -fields=Login,UID /etc/passwd

       -w(idth)=num
                 Set the maximum table width.  This value is applied to the variable
                 Data::Showtable::Max_Table_Width.  When the total width of all columns to be displayed exceeds
                 this value, all column widths are scaled uniformly.

                 If -width is not given, then for all output but -html, the default value is either ""COLUMNS"",
                 if defined, or 80, if not.  Whith -html mode, there is no default value for -width; in other
                 words, there is no limit to the width.

       -cw(idths)=w1[,w2,...,wN]
                 Set individual column widths to the specified values.  Empty column widths imply no maximum
                 width.  If the -width option is also given, then the -cwidth column widths can also be given as
                 fractions or percentages.

                 Example: To set the maximum width of the third column to 20 characters:

                     -cw=,,20

   HTML-only options (the usage of which implies -html)
       -noe(scape)
                 Do not perform HTML escape sequences on the data; this allows embedded HTML text in the data to
                 be displayed properly with the -html option.

       -attributes='attr1 attr2 ...'
                 Declare the table attributes, which are inserted into the "TABLE" token.  For example, the
                 option:

                     -attributes='BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=4'

                 would cause the following HTML:

                     <TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=4>

                 The default table attributes are:

                     <TABLE BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=1>

       -t(itle)_f(ormats)=fmt1;fmt2;...;fmtN
                 Set the HTML formats for the column titles.  The -title_formats (or just -tf) can be given
                 multiple times, for each column, or formats for multiple columns can be given on the same
                 option separated by semi-colons "";"".

                 Each fmtN can itself be multiple HTML items, separated by commas.  Each HTML element can be
                 given either as an HTML token (eg: ""\<BOLD\">"), or as a plain name (eg: ""BOLD"").

                 For example, here is a title format specification for three columns, where the first column
                 title should be bold italic, the second italic, and the third italic in a smaller font:

                         -tf='BOLD,I;I;<FONT SIZE=-2>,I'

       -d(ata)_f(formats)=fmt1;fmt2;...;fmtN
                 The same as -title_formats but applies to the column data.

       -url(s)=col1=url1,col2=url2,...
                 Define a mapping from column names, or indexes, to URLs to be inserted as <A HREF's> around the
                 values for the named columns.  Each colN is a column name or index, and each urlN is a string
                 representing the URL to be inserted for the given column.

                 The URL text may contain these substitution strings:

                 %K - will be substituted with the current column name (or key).

                 %V - will be substituted with the current column value.

                 Multiple -url options may be given, if desired, rather than creating one long argument for a
                 single -url.  For example:

                     showtable   -d: -f1,6 -titles=Login,Homedir \
                                 -url='Login=mailto:%V' \
                                 -url='HomeDir=file:%V' \
                                 /etc/passwd

   Other options
       -help     Display some help to the user and quit.

   Boxed Input
       If the input type is box, then vertical and horizontal box characters are removed from the input stream,
       and blanks surrounding the vertical box characters are removed.  The vertical box characters (column
       separaters) are ""|"" or "":"".  The The horizontal box characters are ""+"" and ""-"".

       Morever, data wrapped within a column is recognized and parsed as one column value, by recognizing the
       presence of a wrapping prefix or wrapping suffix character.  Currently, the wrapping prefix character is
       "<", and the wrapping suffix character is ">".

       An example of data wrapped within a column is given here.  The table below has just two logical rows of
       data; with both rows having data wrapped into multiple physical rows.

               +---------+---------+---------+
               |  Col 1  |  Col 2  |  Col 3  |
               +---------+---------+---------+
               | This is>| Another>| Row 1,3>|
               |< a cont>|< value. |<is also>|
               |<inued  >|         |<long.   |
               |<value.  |         |         |
               |This is >| Item2-2 | Item2-3 |
               +---------+---------+---------+

   List Format
       When using the -list or -input=list options, either, or both, the input and output may be in a "list"
       format, which is implemented using the following syntax:

               r1c1_name: r1c1_value
               r1c2_name: r1c2_value
               ...
               r1cN_name: r1cN_value

               r2c1_name: r2c1_value
               r2c2_name: r2c2_value
                        : r2c2_value_continued
               ...
               r2cN_name: r2cN_value

               rMc1_name: rMc1_value
               rMc2_name: rMc2_value
               ...
               rMcN_name: rMcN_value

       Each row of data consists of one or more columns, and ends with a blank line.

       Each column consists of a column name, followed by a colon ":", followed by an optional, single space or
       tab, followed by the column value, on the same line.

       Continuation lines of the previous column value consist of one or more space or tab characters, a colon
       ":", one optional, single space or tab, followed by the continuation value.  In the example above, The
       second column value of the second row was continued.

   HTML Input with HTML Output
       When using -html on data already containing HTML-formatted text, the -noescape option should be used.  By
       default, all input text is assumed not to be HTML-formatted, and is escaped allowing embedded "<", ">"
       characters, if any, to be displayed correctly.

DEPENDENCIES

       Data::ShowTable module
                 Performs the actual output formatting.

AUTHOR

       Alan K. Stebbens aks@stebbens.org

BUGS

       •    Currently, the box formatting characters are not configurable: '+' for the corners; '-' and '|' for
            the tops and sides, respectively.  In an ideal world, these things would be configurable.

       •    The continuation prefix and suffix characters, '<' and '>', respectively, are also not configurable:

       •    When reading table input, any data ending with ">" will be considered to be continued by the next
            row of data.  To avoid this, use -input=simple.

       •    When selecting noncontiguous fields (ie: -f1,4>) without field names, the default field names will
            be consecutively numbered from 1, which is counter-intuitive to the original selection.  To avoid
            this, name the fields using the -title=...  option.