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Build Captivating Display Tables in Python With Great Tables | Real Python Podcast #214

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/

Michael Chow