Pandas
pandas.DataFrames are pretty sweet data structures in Python.
I do a lot of work with tabular data and one thing I have incorporated into some of that work is automatic data summary reports by throwing the first few, or several relevant, rows of a dataframe at a point in a pipeline into a markdown file.
Pandas has a method on DataFrames that makes this 100% trivial!
The Method
Say we have a dataframe, df... then it's literally just: df.to_markdown()
❯ df.head()
Unnamed: 0 mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
0 Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
1 Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
2 Datsun 710 22.8 4 108.0 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
3 Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258.0 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
4 Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360.0 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
In ipython I can call the method and get a markdown table back as a string
mental-data-lake new-posts via 3.8.11(mental-data-lake) ipython
❯ df.head().to_markdown()
'| | Unnamed: 0 | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | am | gear | carb |\n|---:|:------------------|------:|------:|-------:|-----:|-------:|------:|-------:|-----:|-----:|-------:|-------:|\n| 0 | Mazda RX4 | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.62 | 16.46 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |\n| 1 | Mazda RX4 Wag | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.875 | 17.02 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |\n| 2 | Datsun 710 | 22.8 | 4 | 108 | 93 | 3.85 | 2.32 | 18.61 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |\n| 3 | Hornet 4 Drive | 21.4 | 6 | 258 | 110 | 3.08 | 3.215 | 19.44 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |\n| 4 | Hornet Sportabout | 18.7 | 8 | 360 | 175 | 3.15 | 3.44 | 17.02 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |'
You can drop that string into a markdown file and using any reader that supports the rendering you'll have a nicely formated table of example data in whatever report you're making!
Bonus method
Just like markdown, you can export a dataframe to html with df.to_html() and use that if it's more appropriate for your use case:
'<table border="1" class="dataframe">\n <thead>\n <tr style="text-align: right;">\n <th></th>\n <th>Unnamed: 0</th>\n <th>mpg</th>\n <th>cyl</th>\n <th>disp</th>\n <th>hp</th>\n <th>drat</th>\n <th>wt</th>\n <th>qsec</th>\n <th>vs</th>\n <th>am</th>\n <th>gear</th>\n <th>carb</th>\n </tr>\n </thead>\n <tbody>\n <tr>\n <th>0</th>\n <td>Mazda RX4</td>\n <td>21.0</td>\n <td>6</td>\n <td>160.0</td>\n <td>110</td>\n <td>3.90</td>\n <td>2.620</td>\n <td>16.46</td>\n <td>0</td>\n <td>1</td>\n <td>4</td>\n <td>4</td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th>1</th>\n <td>Mazda RX4 Wag</td>\n <td>21.0</td>\n <td>6</td>\n <td>160.0</td>\n <td>110</td>\n <td>3.90</td>\n <td>2.875</td>\n <td>17.02</td>\n <td>0</td>\n <td>1</td>\n <td>4</td>\n <td>4</td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th>2</th>\n <td>Datsun 710</td>\n <td>22.8</td>\n <td>4</td>\n <td>108.0</td>\n <td>93</td>\n <td>3.85</td>\n <td>2.320</td>\n <td>18.61</td>\n <td>1</td>\n <td>1</td>\n <td>4</td>\n <td>1</td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th>3</th>\n <td>Hornet 4 Drive</td>\n <td>21.4</td>\n <td>6</td>\n <td>258.0</td>\n <td>110</td>\n <td>3.08</td>\n <td>3.215</td>\n <td>19.44</td>\n <td>1</td>\n <td>0</td>\n <td>3</td>\n <td>1</td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <th>4</th>\n <td>Hornet Sportabout</td>\n <td>18.7</td>\n <td>8</td>\n <td>360.0</td>\n <td>175</td>\n <td>3.15</td>\n <td>3.440</td>\n <td>17.02</td>\n <td>0</td>\n <td>0</td>\n <td>3</td>\n <td>2</td>\n </tr>\n </tbody>\n</table>'
My blog will render that html into a nice table! (After removing new line characters)
| Unnamed: 0 | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | am | gear | carb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mazda RX4 | 21.0 | 6 | 160.0 | 110 | 3.90 | 2.620 | 16.46 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Mazda RX4 Wag | 21.0 | 6 | 160.0 | 110 | 3.90 | 2.875 | 17.02 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Datsun 710 | 22.8 | 4 | 108.0 | 93 | 3.85 | 2.320 | 18.61 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Hornet 4 Drive | 21.4 | 6 | 258.0 | 110 | 3.08 | 3.215 | 19.44 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Hornet Sportabout | 18.7 | 8 | 360.0 | 175 | 3.15 | 3.440 | 17.02 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |