Font Alignment
Tabulate supports three font alignment settings to control how text is positioned within table cells. By default, all table content is left-aligned.
Alignment Options
You can align text in cells using the following options:
FontAlign::left - Align text to the left (default)FontAlign::center - Center text horizontallyFontAlign::right - Align text to the right
Basic Usage
Use .format().font_align(alignment) to set alignment for cells, rows, columns, or the entire table.
// Center align a specific column
table.column(2).format()
.font_align(FontAlign::center);
// Right align a column
table.column(3).format()
.font_align(FontAlign::right);
Practical Example
Here’s a complete example showing how to align different columns in a movies table:
#include <tabulate/table.hpp>
using namespace tabulate;
int main() {
Table movies;
movies.add_row({"S/N", "Movie Name", "Director", "Estimated Budget", "Release Date"});
movies.add_row({"tt1979376", "Toy Story 4", "Josh Cooley", "$200,000,000", "21 June 2019"});
movies.add_row({"tt3263904", "Sully", "Clint Eastwood", "$60,000,000", "9 September 2016"});
movies.add_row({"tt1535109", "Captain Phillips", "Paul Greengrass", "$55,000,000", " 11 October 2013"});
// center align 'Director' column
movies.column(2).format()
.font_align(FontAlign::center);
// right align 'Estimated Budget' column
movies.column(3).format()
.font_align(FontAlign::right);
// right align 'Release Date' column
movies.column(4).format()
.font_align(FontAlign::right);
// center-align and color header cells
for (size_t i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
movies[0][i].format()
.font_color(Color::yellow)
.font_align(FontAlign::center)
.font_style({FontStyle::bold});
}
std::cout << movies << std::endl;
}
Alignment follows the style inheritance model. Cell-level alignment overrides row and column alignment, which in turn overrides table-level alignment. Alignment Hierarchy
Column-level alignment
Apply alignment to all cells in a column using table.column(index).format().font_align(alignment)
Row-level alignment
Apply alignment to all cells in a row using table[row_index].format().font_align(alignment)
Cell-level alignment
Override alignment for a specific cell using table[row][col].format().font_align(alignment)
Common Patterns
A common pattern is to center-align header rows while keeping data rows left-aligned:
// Center all header cells
for (auto& cell : table[0]) {
cell.format().font_align(FontAlign::center);
}
Numeric Data
For columns containing numeric data (like prices or dates), right alignment typically improves readability:
// Right-align numeric columns
table.column(3).format().font_align(FontAlign::right); // Budget
table.column(4).format().font_align(FontAlign::right); // Date
When working with tables containing numeric data, consider right-aligning those columns for better visual alignment of decimal points and numbers.
