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Overview

The Border class defines the appearance of table borders, including lines, corners, and connectors. Tabular provides several pre-defined border styles and allows complete customization of individual border parts.

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Class Definition

namespace tabular {
  class Border;
}

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Border Parts

A border consists of 11 distinct parts:
  • horizontal - Horizontal lines (top and bottom)
  • vertical - Vertical lines (left and right sides)
  • cornerTopLeft - Top-left corner
  • cornerTopRight - Top-right corner
  • cornerBottomLeft - Bottom-left corner
  • cornerBottomRight - Bottom-right corner
  • connectorLeft - Left T-connector (joins horizontal separator with left border)
  • connectorRight - Right T-connector
  • connectorTop - Top T-connector (joins vertical lines with top border)
  • connectorBottom - Bottom T-connector
  • intersection - Cross intersection (where horizontal and vertical separators meet)

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Static Factory Methods

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modern()

static Border modern()
Creates a border with modern single-line box-drawing characters. Characters: ─ │ ┌ ┐ └ ┘ ├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼ Example: 
using namespace tabular;

Table table;
table.border(Border::modern());
Output: 
┌───────┬───────┐
│ Name  │ Age   │
├───────┼───────┤
│ Alice │ 30    │
└───────┴───────┘

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rounded()

static Border rounded()
Creates a border with rounded corners. Characters: ─ │ ╭ ╮ ╰ ╯ ├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼ Example: 
table.border(Border::rounded());
Output: 
╭───────┬───────╮
│ Name  │ Age   │
├───────┼───────┤
│ Alice │ 30    │
╰───────┴───────╯

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heavy()

static Border heavy()
Creates a border with heavy (thick) box-drawing characters. Characters: ━ ┃ ┏ ┓ ┗ ┛ ┣ ┫ ┳ ┻ ╋ Example: 
table.border(Border::heavy());
Output: 
┏━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┓
┃ Name  ┃ Age   ┃
┣━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━┫
┃ Alice ┃ 30    ┃
┗━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━┛

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doubled()

static Border doubled()
Creates a border with double-line box-drawing characters. Characters: ═ ║ ╔ ╗ ╚ ╝ ╠ ╣ ╦ ╩ ╬ Example: 
table.border(Border::doubled());
Output: 
╔═══════╦═══════╗
║ Name  ║ Age   ║
╠═══════╬═══════╣
║ Alice ║ 30    ║
╚═══════╩═══════╝

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blank()

static Border blank()
Creates a border using space characters (invisible border with spacing). Example: 
table.border(Border::blank());
Output: 
         
  Name    Age   
         
  Alice   30

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none()

static Border none()
Creates a border with no characters (completely invisible). Example: 
table.border(Border::none());

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filled()

static Border filled(const uint32_t c)
Creates a border where all parts use the specified character.
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c
uint32_t
Unicode code point for the character to use
Example: 
// Border made of asterisks
table.border(Border::filled(U'*'));

// Border made of hash symbols
table.border(Border::filled(U'#'));

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Instance Methods

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Accessing Border Parts

Each border part can be accessed and modified: 
Part& horizontal()
Part& vertical()
Part& cornerTopLeft()
Part& cornerTopRight()
Part& cornerBottomLeft()
Part& cornerBottomRight()
Part& intersection()
Part& connectorLeft()
Part& connectorRight()
Part& connectorTop()
Part& connectorBottom()

// Const versions
const Part& horizontal() const
// ... etc
Example: 
Border border = Border::modern();

// Access and modify parts
border.horizontal().fg(Color::Blue);
border.vertical().fg(Color::Green);
border.cornerTopLeft().glyph(U'╔');

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Setting Border Parts

You can set the glyph for each part: 
Border& horizontal(const uint32_t glyph)
Border& vertical(const uint32_t glyph)
Border& cornerTopLeft(const uint32_t glyph)
// ... etc
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glyph
uint32_t
Unicode code point for the character
Example: 
Border border;
border.horizontal(U'═')
      .vertical(U'║')
      .cornerTopLeft(U'╔')
      .cornerTopRight(U'╗');

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reset()

void reset()
Resets the border to default ASCII characters (-, |, +). Example: 
border.reset();

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Border::Part Class

Represents a single border element with its character and styling.

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Constructor

Part(const uint32_t glyph)
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glyph
uint32_t
Unicode code point for the character

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Methods

glyph() 
Part& glyph(const uint32_t glyph)
uint32_t glyph() const
Sets or gets the Unicode character for this part. fg() 
Part& fg(const Color color)
Part& fg(const Rgb rgb)
uint32_t fg() const
Sets the foreground color of the border part. bg() 
Part& bg(const Color color)
Part& bg(const Rgb rgb)
uint32_t bg() const
Sets the background color of the border part. clr() / clrFg() / clrBg() 
Part& clr()      // Clear all colors
Part& clrFg()    // Clear foreground
Part& clrBg()    // Clear background
Clears color styling. str() 
const std::string& str() const
Returns the rendered string for this border part (with colors).

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Examples

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Custom Border Style

#include <tabular/table.h>
using namespace tabular;

Table table;
Border customBorder;

customBorder.horizontal(U'═')
            .vertical(U'║')
            .cornerTopLeft(U'╔')
            .cornerTopRight(U'╗')
            .cornerBottomLeft(U'╚')
            .cornerBottomRight(U'╝')
            .connectorLeft(U'╠')
            .connectorRight(U'╣')
            .connectorTop(U'╦')
            .connectorBottom(U'╩')
            .intersection(U'╬');

table.border(customBorder);

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Colored Border

using namespace tabular;

Table table;
table.border(Border::modern());

// Color all horizontal parts blue
table.border().horizontal().fg(Color::BrightBlue);
table.border().connectorTop().fg(Color::BrightBlue);
table.border().connectorBottom().fg(Color::BrightBlue);

// Color all vertical parts green
table.border().vertical().fg(Color::BrightGreen);
table.border().connectorLeft().fg(Color::BrightGreen);
table.border().connectorRight().fg(Color::BrightGreen);

// Color corners and intersections cyan
table.border().cornerTopLeft().fg(Color::BrightCyan);
table.border().cornerTopRight().fg(Color::BrightCyan);
table.border().cornerBottomLeft().fg(Color::BrightCyan);
table.border().cornerBottomRight().fg(Color::BrightCyan);
table.border().intersection().fg(Color::BrightCyan);

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Mixed Border Styles

using namespace tabular;

Border border = Border::modern();

// Use rounded corners with modern lines
border.cornerTopLeft(U'╭')
      .cornerTopRight(U'╮')
      .cornerBottomLeft(U'╰')
      .cornerBottomRight(U'╯');

table.border(border);

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ASCII-Only Border

Border asciiBorder;
asciiBorder.horizontal(U'-')
           .vertical(U'|')
           .cornerTopLeft(U'+')
           .cornerTopRight(U'+')
           .cornerBottomLeft(U'+')
           .cornerBottomRight(U'+')
           .connectorLeft(U'+')
           .connectorRight(U'+')
           .connectorTop(U'+')
           .connectorBottom(U'+')
           .intersection(U'+');

table.border(asciiBorder);

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RGB Colored Border

using namespace tabular;

table.border(Border::heavy());

// Gradient-like colors
table.border().horizontal().fg(Rgb(100, 150, 255));
table.border().vertical().fg(Rgb(150, 100, 255));
table.border().intersection().fg(Rgb(125, 125, 255));

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See Also

  • Table - Table class reference
  • Color - Color and RGB reference
  • Row - Row configuration

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