NAME¶
ShowTable - routines to display tabular data in several formats.
USAGE¶
"use Data::ShowTable;"
ShowTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub ];
ShowDatabases \@dbnames;
ShowDatabases {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowTables \@tblnames;
ShowTables {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowColumns \@columns,
\@col_types,
\@col_lengths,
\@col_attrs;
ShowColumns {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowBoxTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub ];
ShowBoxTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowSimpleTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub];
ShowSimpleTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowHTMLTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub];
ShowHTMLTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowListTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub];
ShowListTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
"package Data::ShowTable";
$Show_Mode = '
mode';
$Max_Table_Width =
number;
$Max_List_Width =
number;
$No_Escape =
flag;
%URL_Keys = { "
$colname"
=> "
$col_URL", ... };
@Title_Formats = (
fmt1_html, <fmt2_html>, ...
);
@Data_Formats = (
fmt1_html, <fmt2_html>, ...
);
ShowRow $rewindflag,
\$index,
$col_array_1 [,
$col_array_2, ...;]
$fmt =
ShowTableValue $value,
$type,
$max_width,
$width ,
$precision,
$showmode ;
[
$plaintext = ]
PlainText
[
$htmltext];
DESCRIPTION¶
The
ShowTable module provides subroutines to display tabular data,
typially from a database, in nicely formatted columns, in several formats. Its
arguments can either be given in a fixed order, or, as a single, anonymous
hash-array.
The output format for any one invocation can be one of four possible styles:
- Box
- A tabular format, with the column titles and the entire table surrounded
by a "box" of ""+"",
""-"", and ""|"" characters. See
"ShowBoxTable" for details.
- Table
- A simple tabular format, with columns automatically aligned, with column
titles. See "ShowSimpleTable".
- List
- A list style, where columns of data are listed as a
name:value pair, one pair per line, with rows being one or
more column values, separated by an empty line. See
"ShowListTable".
- HTML
- The data is output as an HTML TABLE, suitable for display through a
Web-client. See "ShowHTMLTable". Input can either be
plain ASCII text, or text with embedded HTML elements, depending upon an
argument or global parameter.
The subroutines which perform these displays are listed below.
EXPORTED NAMES¶
This module exports the following subroutines:
ShowDatabases - show list of databases
ShowTables - show list of tables
ShowColumns - show table of column info
ShowTable - show a table of data
ShowRow - show a row from one or more columns
ShowTableValue - show a single column's value
ShowBoxTable - show a table of data in a box
ShowListTable - show a table of data in a list
ShowSimpleTable - show a table of data in a simple table
ShowHTMLTable - show a table of data using HTML
PlainText - convert HTML text into plain text
All of these subroutines, and others, are described in detail in the following
sections.
MODULES¶
ShowTable¶
Format and display the contents of one or more rows of data.
ShowTable {
parameter =>
value, ... };
ShowTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub [,
$max_width ] [,
$show_mode ] ];
The
ShowTable subroutine displays tabular data aligned in columns, with
headers.
ShowTable supports four
modes of display:
Box,
Table,
List, and
HTML. Each mode is described separately
below.
The arguments to
ShowTable may be given in one of two ways: as a
hashed-array, or by a combination of fixed order arguments, and some
package-global variable settings. The hash-array parameters correspond to the
fixed arguments and the global-parameter settings.
In the list below, both the hash-array parameter name and the fixed-order
argument name is given as the value. In the case where there is no fixed-order
argument for a given parameter-value pair, then the corresponding global
variable name is given.
- "titles" => \@titles
- A reference to an array of column names, or titles. If a particular column
name is null, then the string "Field_ num" is used by
default. To have a column have no title, use the empty string.
- "types" => \@types
- A reference to an array of types, one for each column. These types are
passed to the fmt_sub for appropriate formatting. Also, if a column
type matches the regexp ""/text|char|string/i"", then
the column alignment will be left-justified, otherwise it will be
right-justified.
- "widths" => \@widths
- A reference to an array of column widths, which may be given as an
integer, or as a string of the form: "
width.precision".
- "row_sub" => \&row_sub
- A reference to a subroutine which successively returns rows of values in
an array. It is called for two purposes, each described separately:
* To fetch successive rows of data:
@row = &$row_sub(0);
When given a null, zero, or empty argument, the next row is returned.
* To initialize or rewind the data traversal.
$rewindable = &$row_sub(1);
When invoked with a non-null argument, the subroutine should rewind its row
pointer to start at the first row of data. If the data which
row_sub is traversing is not rewindable, it must return zero or
null. If the data is rewindable, a non-null, non-zero value should be
returned.
The row_sub must expect to be invoked once with a non-null argument,
in order to discover whether or not the data is rewindable. If the data
cannot be rewound, row_sub will thereafter only be called with a
zero argument.
Specifically, row_sub subroutine is used in this manner:
$rewindable = &$row_sub(1);
if ($rewindable) {
while ((@row = &$row_sub(0)), $#row >= 0) {
# examine lengths for optimal formatting
}
&$row_sub(1); # rewind
}
while ((@row = &$row_sub(0)), $#row >= 0) {
# format the data
}
The consequence of data that is not rewindable, a reasonably nice table will
still be formatted, but it may contain fairly large amounts of whitespace
for wide columns.
- "fmtsub" => \&fmt_sub
- A reference to a subroutine which formats a value, according to its type,
width, precision, and the current column width. It is invoked either with
a fixed list of arguments, or with a hash-array of parameter and value
pairs.
$string = &fmt_sub { I<parameter> => I<value>, ... };
$string = &fmt_sub($value, $type, $max_width, $width, $precision)
If \&fmt_sub is omitted, then a default subroutine,
ShowTableValue, will be used, which will use Perl's standard string
formatting rules.
The arguments to \&fmt_sub, either as values passed in a fixed
order, or as part of the parameter value pair, are described in the
section on "ShowTableValue below.
- "max_width" => number,
- The maximum table width, including the table formatting characters. If not
given, defaults to the global variable
$Max_Table_Width;
- "show_mode" => 'mode',
- The display mode of the output. One of five strings: 'Box', 'Table',
'Simple', 'List', and 'HTML'.
ShowDatabases¶
Show a list of database names.
ShowDatabases \@dbnames;
ShowDatabases { 'data' =>
\@dbnames,
parameter =>
value, ...};
ShowDatabases is intended to be used to display a list of database names,
under the column heading of "Databases". It is a special case usage
of
ShowTable (and can thus be passed any parameter suitable for
ShowTable.
The argument,
\@dbnames, is a reference to an array of strings, used as
the values of the single column display.
ShowTables¶
Show an array of table names.
ShowTables \@tblnames;
ShowTables { 'data' =>
\@tblnames,
parameter =>
value, ...};
ShowTables is used to display a list of table names, under the column
heading of "Tables". It is a special case usage of
ShowTable,
and can be passed any "ShowTable" argument parameter.
ShowColumns¶
Display a table of column names, types, and attributes.
ShowColumns {
parameter =>
values, ...
};
ShowColumns \@columns,
\@col_types,
\@col_lengths,
\@col_attrs;
The
ShowColumns subroutine displays a table of column names, types,
lengths, and other attributes in a nicely formatted table. It is a special
case usage of
ShowTable, and can be passed any argument suitable for
"ShowTable";
The arguments are:
- "columns" = \@columns
- An array of column names. This provides the value for the first column of
the output.
- "col_types" = \@col_types
- An array of column types names. This provides the value for the second
column.
- "col_lengths" = \@col_lengths
- An array of maximum lengths for corresponding columns. This provides the
value for the third column of the output.
- "col_attrs" = \@col_attrs
- An array of column attributes array references (ie: an array of arrays).
The attributes array for the first column are at "
$col_attrs -\>[0]". The first attribute of
the second column is "
$col_attrs-\>[1][0]".
The columns, types, lengths, and attributes are displayed in a table with the
column headings: "Column", "Type", "Length", and
"Attributes". This is a special case usage of
ShowTable, and
can be passed additional arguments suitable for "ShowTable".
ShowBoxTable¶
Show tabular data in a box.
ShowBoxTable {
parameter =
value, ... };
ShowBoxTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub
[, [
\&fmt_sub ] [,
$max_width ] ];
The
ShowBoxTable displays tabular data in titled columns using a
"box" of ASCII graphics, looking something like this:
+------------+----------+-----+----------+
| Column1 | Column2 | ... | ColumnN |
+------------+----------+-----+----------+
| Value11 | Value12 | ... | Value 1M |
| Value21 | Value22 | ... | Value 2M |
| Value31 | Value32 | ... | Value 3M |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
| ValueN1 | ValueN2 | ... | Value NM |
+------------+----------+-----+----------+
The arguments are the same as with "ShowTable". If the
@titles array is empty, the header row is omitted.
ShowSimpleTable¶
Display a table of data using a simple table format.
ShowSimpleTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub];
ShowSimpleTable {
parameter =>
values,
... };
The
ShowSimpleTable subroutine formats data into a simple table of
aligned columns, in the following example:
Column1 Column2 Column3
------- ------- -------
Value1 Value2 Value3
Value12 Value22 Value32
Columns are auto-sized by the data's widths, plus two spaces between columns.
Values which are too long for the maximum colulmn width are wrapped within the
column.
ShowHTMLTable¶
Display a table of data nicely using HTML tables.
ShowHTMLTable {
parameter =>
value, ...
};
ShowHTMLTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub [,
$max_width [,
\%URL_Keys [,
$no_escape [,
\@title_formats [,
\@data_formats [,
$table_attrs ] ] ] ] ] ] ];
The
ShowHTMLTable displays one or more rows of columns of data using the
HTML "\<TABLE\"> feature. In addition to the usual parameter
arguments of "ShowTable", the following parameter arguments are
defined:
- "url_keys" => \%URL_Keys,
- This is a hash array of column names (titles) and corresponding base URLs.
The values of any column names or indexes occuring as keys in the hash
array will be generated as hypertext anchors using the associated
printf-like string as the base URL. Either the column name or the
column index (beginning with 1) may be used as the hash key.
In the string value, these macros can be substituted:
"%K" is replaced with the column name.
"%V" is replaced with the column value;
"%I" is replaced with the column index.
For example, if we define the array:
$base_url = "http://www.$domain/cgi/lookup?col=%K?val=%V";
%url_cols = ('Author' => $base_url,
'Name' => $base_url);
Then, the values in the "Author" column will be generated with the
following HTML text:
<A HREF="http://www.$domain/cgi/lookup?col=Author?val=somevalue>somevalue</A>
and the values in the "Name" column will be generated with the
URL:
<A HREF="http://www.$domain/cgi/lookup?col=Name?val=othervalue>othervalue</A>
If this variable is not given, it will default to the global variable
"\%URL_Keys".
- "no_escape" => boolean,
- Unless $no_escape is set, HTML-escaping is performed
on the data values in order to properly display the special HTML
formatting characters : '\<', '\>', and '&'. If you wish to
display data with embedded HTML text, you must set
$no_escape .
Enabling embedded HTML, turns on certain heuristics which enable the user to
more completely define appearance of the table. For instance, any
"\<TR\"> tokens found embedded *anywhere* within a row of
data will be placed at the front of the row, within the generated
"\<TR\">.
Similarly, a row of data containing the "\<THEAD\"> or
"\<TFOOT\"> tokens, and their closing counterparts, will
begin and end, respectively a table header or footer data.
- "title_formats" => \@title_formats,
- "tformats" => \@title_formats,
- An array of HTML formatting elements for the column titles, one for each
column. Each array element is a list of one or more HTML elements, given
as "\<ELEMENT\"> or plainly, "ELEMENT", and
separated by a comma ',', semi-colon ';', or vertical bar '|'. Each given
HTML element is prepended to the corresponding column title, in the order
given. The corresponding HTML closing elements are appended in the
opposite order.
For example, if \@title_formats contains the two elements:
[ 'FONT SIZE=+2,BOLD', 'FONT COLOR=red,EM' ]
then the text output for the title of the first column would be:
<FONT SIZE=+2><BOLD>I<column_1_title></BOLD></FONT>
If "title_formats" is omitted, the global variable
@Title_Formats is used by default.
- "data_formats" => \@data_formats,
- "dformats" => \@data_formats,
- Similar to "title_formats", this array provides HTML formatting
for the columns of each row of data. If "data_formats" is
omitted or null, then the global variable \@Data_Formats is used by
default.
- "table_attrs" => $table_attrs,
- This variable defines a string of attributes to be inserted within the
"\<TABLE\"> token. For example, if the user wishes to have
no table border:
ShowHTMLTable {
...
table_attrs => 'BORDER=0',
...
};
ShowListTable¶
Display a table of data using a list format.
ShowListTable {
parameter =>
value, ...
};
ShowListTable \@titles,
\@types,
\@widths,
\&row_sub [,
\&fmt_sub [,
$max_width [,
$wrap_margin ] ] ];
The arguments for
ShowListTable are the same as for
"ShowTable", except for those described next.
- "max_width" = number,
- "wrap_margin" = number,
- Lines are truncated, and wrapped when their length exceeds
$max_width . Wrapping is done on a word-basis, unless
the resulting right margin exceeds $wrap_margin, in
which case the line is simply truncated at the
$max_width limit.
The $max_width variable defaults to
$Max_List_Width . The
$wrap_margin defaults to
$List_Wrap_Margin .
In
List mode, columns (called "fields" in List mode) are
displayed wth a field name and value pair per line, with records being one or
more fields . In other words, the output of a table would look something like
this:
Field1_1: Value1_1
Field1_2: Value1_2
Field1_3: Value1_3
...
Field1-N: Value1_M
<empty line>
Field2_1: Value2_1
Field2_2: Value2_2
Field2_3: Value2_3
...
Field2_N: Value2_N
...
FieldM_1: ValueM_1
FieldM_2: ValueM_2
...
FieldM_N: ValueM_N
<empty line>
<empty line>
Characteristics of
List mode:
- •
- two empty lines indicate the end of data.
- •
- An empty field (column) may be omitted, or may have a label, but no
data.
- •
- A long line can be continue by a null field (column):
Field2: blah blah blah
: blah blah blah
- •
- On a continuation, the null field is an arbitrary number of leading white
space, a colon ':', a single blank or tab, followed by the continued
text.
- •
- Embedded newlines are indicated by the escape mechanism "\n".
Similarly, embedded tabs are indicated with "\t", returns with
"\r".
- •
- If the @titles array is empty, the field names
""Field_" NN" are used instead.
ShowRow¶
Fetch rows successively from one or more columns of data.
ShowRow $rewindflag,
\$index,
$col_array_1 [,
$col_array_2 , ...;]
The
ShowRow subroutine returns a row of data from one or more columns of
data. It is designed to be used as a
callback routine, within the
ShowTable routine. It can be used to select elements from one or more
array reference arguments.
If passed two or more array references as arguments, elements of the arrays
selected by
$index are returned as the "row" of
data.
If a single array argument is passed, and each element of the array is itself an
array, the subarray is returned as the "row" of data.
If the
$rewindflag flag is set, then the
$index pointer is reset to zero, and "true" is
returned (a scalar 1). This indicates that the data is rewindable to the
ShowTable routines.
When the
$rewindflag is not set, then the current row of
data, as determined by
$index is returned, and
$index will have been incremented.
An actual invocation (from
ShowColumns) is:
ShowTable \@titles, \@types, \@lengths,
sub { &ShowRow( $_[0], \$current_row, $col_names, $col_types,
$col_lengths, \@col_attrs); };
In the example above, after each invocation, the
$current_row argument will have been incremented.
ShowTableValue¶
Prepare and return a formatted representation of a value. A value argument,
using its corresponding type, effective width, and precision is formatted into
a field of a given maximum width.
$fmt =
ShowTableValue
$value ,
$type,
$max_width ,
$width,
$precision ,
$showmode;
- "width" => $width
- $width
- The width of the current value. If omittied,
$max_width is assumed.
- "precision" => $precision
- $precision
- The number of decimal digits; zero is assumed if omittied.
- "value" => $value
- $value
- The value to be formatted.
- $type
- The type name of the value; eg: "char", "varchar",
"int", etc.
- "maxwidth" => $max_width
- $max_width
- The maximum width of any value in the current value's column. If
$width is zero or null,
$max_width is used by default.
$max_width is also used as a minimum width,
in case $width is a smaller value.
- $width
- The default width of the value, obtained from the width specification of
the column in which this value occurs.
- $precision
- The precision specification, if any, from the column width
specification.
- $showmode
- The mode of the output: one of "table", "list",
"box", or "html". Currently, only the "html"
mode is significant: it is used to avoid using HTML tokens as part of the
formatted text and length calculations.
PlainText¶
$plaintext =
&PlainText(
$htmltext);
&PlainText
This function removes any HTML formatting sequences from the input argument, or
from $_ if no argument is given. The resulting plain text is returned as the
result.
VARIABLES¶
The following variables may be set by the user to affect the display (with the
defaults enclosed in square brackets [..]):
- $Show_Mode [Box]
- This is the default display mode when using ShowTable. The
environment variable, $ENV{'SHOW_MODE'}, is used when this variable is
null or the empty string. The possible values for this variable are:
"Box", "List", "Table", and
"HTML". Case is insignificant.
- $List_Wrap_Margin [2]
- This variable's value determines how large a margin to keep before
wrarpping a long value's display in a column. This value is only used in
"List" mode.
- $Max_List_Width [80]
- This variable, used in "List" mode, is used to determine how
long an output line may be before wrapping it. The environment variable,
$ENV{'COLUMNS'}, is used to define this value when it is null.
- $Max_Table_Width ['']
- This variable, when set, causes all tables to have their columns scaled
such that their total combined width does not exceed this value. When this
variable is not set, which is the default case, there is no maximum table
width, and no scaling will be done.
- $No_Escape ['']
- If set, allows embedded HTML text to be included in the data displayed in
an HTML-formatted table. By default, the HTML formatting characters
("<", ">", and "&") occuring in
values are escaped.
- %URL_Keys
- In HTML mode, this variable is used to recognize which columns are to be
displayed with a corresponding hypertext anchor. See
"ShowHTMLTable" for more details.
- @HTML_Elements
- An array of HTML elements (as of HTML 3.0) used to recognize and strip for
width calculations.
- $HTML_Elements
- A regular expression string formed from the elements of
@HTML_Elements .
INTERNAL SUBROUTINES¶
get_params¶
my
$args =
&get_params
\@argv,
\%params,
\@arglist;
Given the
@argv originally passed to the calling sub, and
the hash of named parameters as
%params, and the array of
parameter names in the order expected for a pass-by-value invocation, set the
values of each of the variables named in
@vars.
If the only element of the
@argv is a hash array, then set
the variables to the values of their corresponding parameters used as keys to
the hash array. If the parameter is not a key of the
%params hash, and is not a key in the global hash
%ShowTableParams, then an error is noted.
When
@argv has multiple elements, or is not a hash array,
set each variable, in the order given within
@arglist, to
the values from the
@argv, setting the variables named by
each value in
%params.
Variables may given either by name or by reference.
The result is a HASH array reference, either corresponding directly to the HASH
array passed as the single argument, or one created by associating the
resulting variable values to the parameter names associated with the variable
names.
(
$prefixes,
$suffixes)
=
html_formats \@html_formats;
The
html_format function takes an array reference of HTML formatting
elements
\@html_formats, and builds two arrays of strings: the first:
$prefixes, is an array of prefixes containing the
corresponding HTML formatting elements from
\@html_formats, and the
second,
$suffixes, containing the appropriate HTML
closing elements, in the opposite order.
The result is designed to be used as prefixes and suffixes for the corresponding
titles and column values.
The array
\@html_formats contains lists of HTML formatting elements, one
for each column (either title or data). Each array element is a list of one or
more HTML elements, either given in HTML syntax, or as a "plain"
name (ie: given as "\<ELEMENT\"> or plainly,
"ELEMENT"). Multiple elements are separated by a comma ','.
The resulting array of
$prefixes contains the corresponding
opening elements, in the order given, with the proper HTML element syntax. The
resulting array of
$suffixes contains the closing
elements, in the opposite order given, with the proper HTML element syntax.
For example, if
\@html_formats contains the two elements:
[ 'FONT SIZE=+2,BOLD', 'FONT COLOR=red,EM' ]
then the resulting two arrays will be returned as:
[ [ '<FONT SIZE=+2><BOLD>', '<FONT COLOR=red><EM>' ],
[ '</FONT></BOLD>', '</FONT></EM>' ] ]
calc_widths¶
(
$num_cols,
$widths,
$precision,
$max_widths) =
&calc_widths(
$widthspec,
$titles,
$rewindable,
$row_sub,
$fmt_sub,
$types ,
$showmode,
$max_width);
DESCRIPTION¶
calc_widths is a generalized subroutine used by all the
ShowTable
variant subroutines to setup internal variables prior to formatting for
display.
Calc_widths handles the column width and precision analysis,
including scanning the data (if rewindable) for appropriate default values.
The number of columns in the data is returned, as well as three arrays: the
declared column widths, the column precision values, and the maximum column
widths.
RETURN VALUES¶
- $num_cols
- is the number of columns in the data. If the data is not rewindable, this
is computed as the maximum of the number of elements in the
$widthspec array and the number of elements in the
$titles array. When the data is rewindable, this is
the maximum of the number of columns of each row of data.
- $widths
- is the column widths array ref, without the precision specs (if any). Each
column's width value is determined by the original
$widthspec value and/or the maximum length of the
formatted data for the column.
- $precision
- is the precision component (if any) of the original
$widthspec array ref. If there was no original
precision component from the $widthspec, and the data
is rewindable, then the data is examined to determine the maximum default
precision.
- $max_widths
- is the ref to the array of maximum widths for the given columns.
ARGUMENTS¶
- $widthspec
- A reference to an array of column width (or length) values, each given as
an integer, real number, or a string value of "
width.precision". If a value is zero or null, the
length of the corresponding formatted data (if rewindable) and column
title length are used to determine a reasonable default.
If a column's width portion is a positive, non-zero number, then the
column will be this wide, regardless of the values lengths of the data in
the column.
If the column's width portion is given as a negative number, then the
positive value is used as a minimum column width, with no limit on the
maximum column width. In other words, the column will be at least
width characters wide.
If the data is not rewindable, and a column's width value is null or zero,
then the length of the column title is used. This may cause severe
wrapping of data in the column, if the column data lengths are much
greater than the column title widths.
- $titles
- The array ref to the column titles; used to determine the minimum
acceptable width, as well as the default number of columns. If the $titles
array is empty, then the $widthspec array is used to determine the default
number of columns.
- $rewindable
- A flag indicating whether or not the data being formatted is rewindable.
If this is true, a pass over the data will be done in order to calculate
the maximum lengths of the actual formatted data, using
$fmt_sub (below), rather than just rely on the
declared column lengths. This allows for optimal column width adjustments
(ie: the actual column widths may be less than the declared column
widths).
If it is not desired to have the column widths dynamically adjusted, then
set the $rewindable argument to 0, even if the data
is rewindable.
- $row_sub
- The code reference to the subroutine which returns the data; invoked only
if $rewindable is non-null.
- $fmt_sub
- The subroutine used to determine the length of the data when formatted; if
this is omitted or null, the length of the data is used by default. The
$fmt_sub is used only when the data is
rewindable.
- $types
- An array reference to the types of each of the value columns; used only
when $fmt_sub is invoked.
- $showmode
- A string indicating the mode of the eventual display; one of four strings:
""box"", ""table"",
""list"", and ""html"". Used to
adjust widths for formatting requirements.
- $max_width
- The maximum width of the table being formatted. If set, and the total sum
of the individual columns exceeds this value, the column widths are scaled
down uniformly. If not set (null), no column width scaling is done.
putcell¶
$wrapped =
&putcell(
\@cells,
$c,
$cell_width,
\@prefix,
\@suffix,
$wrap_flag );
Output the contents of an array cell at
$cell[
$c ], causing text longer than
$cell_width to be saved for output on subsequent calls.
Prefixing the output of each cell's value is a string from the two-element
array
@prefix. Suffixing each cell's value is a string
from the two-element array
@suffix. The first element of
either array is selected when
$wrap_flag is zero or null,
or when there is no more text in the current to be output. The second element
is selected when
$wrap_flag is non-zero, and when there
is more text in the current cell to be output.
In the case of text longer than
$cell_width, a non-zero
value is returned.
Cells with undefined data are not output, nor are the prefix or suffix strings.
center¶
Center a string within a given width.
$field =
center
$string ,
$width;
max¶
Compute the maximum value from a list of values.
$max =
&max(
@values );
min¶
Compute the minum value from a list of values.
$min =
&min(
@values );
max_length¶
Compute the maximum length of a set of strings in an array reference.
$maxlength =
&max_length(
\@array_ref );
htmltext¶
Translate regular text for output into an HTML document. This means certain
characters, such as "&", ">", and "<"
must be escaped.
$output =
&htmltext(
$input [,
$allflag ] );
If
$allflag is non-zero, then all characters are escaped.
Normally, only the four HTML syntactic break characters are escaped.
out¶
Print text followed by a newline.
out $fmt [,
@text ];
put¶
Print text (without a trailing newline).
out $fmt [,
@text ];
AUTHOR¶
Alan K. Stebbens <aks@stebbens.org>
BUGS¶
- •
- Embedded HTML is how the user can insert formatting overrides. However,
the HTML formatting techniques have not been given much consideration --
feel free to provide constructive feedback.