TableDataMerge

🔀 Merge plain text tables together.

About

TableDataMerge (alias 'tdm') is a versatile command-line tool designed to merge plain-text tables horizontally or vertically. It supports various input and output data types, and offers cell formatting options, including number formatting, prefixes, and suffixes.

Features

• Merge tables horizontally or vertically
• Supports various input and output data types
• Offers cell formatting options
• Number formatting
• Ability to add prefixes and suffixes to cell values

Getting Started

Built binaries for TableDataMerge are available for Windows and Linux, and can be found at the project's releases page. Simply download the appropriate binary for your system.

To make the use of the tool more convenient, consider adding the binary to your PATH environment variable.

Supported Data Types

TableDataMerge supports various input and output data types, providing great flexibility to fit different use cases.

Input Data Types

• CSV: Comma Separated Values is a simple and widely used data format that stores tabular data (numbers and text) in plain-text form.

• DAT: DAT is a generic file extension for data files which can contain basic text or binary, although in this context it is used to denote text-based tabular data similar to CSV.

• JSON: JavaScript Object Notation is a lightweight data-interchange format that is easy to read and write. It is based on a subset of JavaScript language.

• M: Matlab tables, where the table data from Matlab is saved in a plain-text form.

Output Data Types

• CSV: Comma Separated Values for easy import into various spreadsheet tools or data analysis tools.

• DAT: DAT is often used for data exchange between applications written in different programming languages.

• JSON: JavaScript Object Notation for further use in web-based applications and data processing tools.

• MD: Markdown format for easy reading and writing of the data in text editors and for display on websites like GitHub.

• TEX: LaTeX source code for use in typesetting systems like LaTeX, providing beautifully formatted and highly customizable output.

Usage

tdm [OPTIONS] <TO> <FILES>...

• TO: Output data type. It specifies the output data type. Possible values include: csv, dat, tex, md, json.

• FILES: File paths. It specifies input file paths and optional additional data. Example: example.csv.

Options

• -o, --out: Sets the output file path.

• -p, --precision: Sets the number of decimal places for numerical values, which will be correctly rounded.

• -d, --decimal-sep: Sets the decimal separator for numerical values. Default is dot.

• -e, --exponent: Enables scientific notation for numerical cells (e.g., '1.234e+05').

• -s, --sign: Forces a sign on every number. By default, only negative values have a sign.

• -H, --hline: Inserts \hline between lines when using tex output format.

• -c, --csv-sep: Specifies the value separator for csv output format. Default is ,.

• -P, --prefix: Sets prefixes for numerical cells.

• -S, --suffix: Sets suffixes for numerical cells.

• -v, --vertical: Stacks tables vertically instead of concatenating them horizontally.

• -h, --help: Prints help information.

Examples

Merging Two Tables with Precision and CSV Separator

tdm csv -o merged.csv -p 2 -c , table1.csv table2.dat

This command merges table1.csv and table2.dat, sets the output data type as csv, sets the number of decimal places as 2, and uses , as the csv delimiter. The resulting table will be saved in merged.csv.

Using Prefix and Suffix Options

tdm tex -P 0..3:$ -S 0..3:$ -S "1: m$" table.dat

This command does not merging operation since only one table is given as input. It will however do all the transformations given.

First, the output format is specified as LaTeX ('tex') through the tdm tex portion of the command. This ensures the final output will be suitable for inclusion in a LaTeX document.

Next, the -P 0..3:$ operation sets a prefix of a dollar sign $ to the first three numerical columns of the table. This is achieved through the 0..3: range specification, which is 0-indexed, meaning it starts counting from 0.

Following that, the -S 0..3:$ operation appends a suffix of a dollar sign $ to the same first three numerical columns. So far, the command has instructed the program to wrap the values in the first three numerical columns in dollar signs, effectively displaying them in math mode for latex.

However, the -S "1: m$" command then specifies a change to the second column. It alters the suffix for numerical values in the second column (again, remembering that column counting starts from 0), replacing the previous $ suffix with m$. Rules applied later in the command will always override rules applied before.

So if we start this table:

Column1	Column2	Column3	Column4
1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8

The output would look something like this:

Column1 & Column2 & Column3 & Column4 \\
$1$ & $2 m$ & $3$ & 4 \\
$5$ & $6 m$ & $7$ & 8

Contributing

If you're interested in contributing to the development of TableDataMerge, feel free to create a pull request. Please ensure that your code follows the existing style guidelines.
(cargo fmt, nothing more 😉)

Changelog

For a detailed list of changes in each version, please refer to the CHANGELOG.md in the repository.

License

TableDataMerge is under the MIT license. For more details, please see the LICENSE.