Command Line Interface

clj-string-layout ships a command-line formatter that reads CSV, TSV, or whitespace-separated input from stdin or a file and writes a formatted table to stdout. The same entry point is exposed as a Babashka task for fast startup.

Quick Examples

clojure -M:cli -- --input csv --format markdown --headers data.csv
clojure -M:cli -- --input tsv --format ascii-grid < data.tsv
clojure -M:cli -- --from csv --to box --headers data.csv

Babashka users have two options. bb format shells out to the JVM CLI and mirrors the clojure -M:cli flags:

bb format -- --input csv --format markdown --headers data.csv
bb format -- --input tsv --format ascii-grid < data.tsv

bb bb-format runs the same logic natively under Babashka with no JVM startup, so it returns in tens of milliseconds instead of half a second:

bb bb-format --from csv --to box --headers < data.csv

The library has no third-party Clojure dependencies, so requiring it from a Babashka script also works directly:

#!/usr/bin/env bb
(require '[clj-string-layout.table :as table])
(println (table/table-str {:format :box
                           :headers ["Name" "Qty"]
                           :rows [["apple" 12]]}))

bb test runs the full JVM test suite, bb bb-test runs the Babashka-only subset (skipping the test.check property tests). bb lint, bb bench, and bb jar are also available.

Options

Option	Meaning
--input FORMAT, --from FORMAT	Input format. One of csv, tsv, whitespace. Defaults to csv.
--format FORMAT, --to FORMAT	Output format. Any value returned by clj-string-layout.table/formats. Defaults to plain.
--headers	Treat the first input row as headers.
--no-headers	Treat every input row as data.
--no-escape	Disable output-format escaping (assume the input is already safe).
--width N	Target width for fill-aware output formats.
-h, --help	Show built-in help.

Run clojure -M:cli -- --help for the auto-generated help that always reflects the currently registered table formats.

Supported Input Formats

Format	Behavior
csv	RFC 4180-style parser with quoted fields, doubled quotes, CR/LF row separators, and embedded line breaks. Lenient about text after closing quotes.
tsv	Tab-separated values, one row per line.
whitespace	Whitespace-separated tokens, one row per non-blank line.

Supported Output Formats

The CLI accepts every value returned by clj-string-layout.table/formats. As of this writing that includes plain, markdown, markdown-left, markdown-center, markdown-right, box, unicode-box, ascii-box, double-box, unicode-double-box, ascii-double-box, ascii-grid, csv, tsv, pipe, psql, org, rst, and html. See the table API guide for what each format produces.

Programmatic Use

cli/render is the same entry point invoked by -main, but returns a vector of output lines instead of printing or exiting. It accepts every key the command-line flags produce, plus optional :width (integer) and :display-width (a function from string to display width, useful for ANSI or wide-glyph data):

(require '[clj-string-layout.cli :as cli])

(cli/render {:input :csv :format :markdown :headers? true}
            "Name,Note\nalice,\"a,b\"\n")
;; => ["| Name  | Note |"
;;     "|:----- |:---- |"
;;     "| alice | a,b  |"]