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Borders and Corners

Tabulate provides fine-grained control over table borders and corners. You can customize the characters used, their colors, and background colors for each border and corner individually.

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Setting Border Characters

You can set custom characters for each border: 
table.format()
  .border_top("-")
  .border_bottom("-")
  .border_left("|")
  .border_right("|");

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Common Border Style

To set all borders to the same character: 
table.format().border("+");

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Setting Corner Characters

Customize each corner individually: 
table.format()
  .corner_top_left("+")
  .corner_top_right("+")
  .corner_bottom_left("+")
  .corner_bottom_right("+");

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Common Corner Style

To set all corners to the same character: 
table.format().corner("+");

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Removing Borders

You can create borderless tables by setting borders to spaces: 
table.format()
  .border_top(" ")
  .border_bottom(" ")
  .border_left(" ")
  .border_right(" ")
  .corner(" ");

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Border and Corner Colors

Tabulate allows you to color borders and corners with both foreground and background colors: 
// Set border foreground colors
table.format()
  .border_left_color(Color::yellow)
  .border_right_color(Color::green)
  .border_top_color(Color::cyan)
  .border_bottom_color(Color::red);

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Common Border Color

Set a common color for all borders: 
table.format()
  .border_color(Color::magenta)
  .corner_color(Color::magenta);

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Multi-byte Characters

When using multi-byte characters (like Unicode symbols or non-ASCII characters), you must enable multi-byte character support:
table.format().multi_byte_characters(true);
This is an opt-in feature because calculating column width with multi-byte characters requires additional processing. You can set this at the table-level, row-level, or per-cell basis.

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Advanced Example: Runic Table

Here’s a complete example using runic characters for borders and corners: 
#include <tabulate/table.hpp>
using namespace tabulate;

int main() {
  Table table;

  table.add_row({"ᛏᚺᛁᛊ ᛁᛊ ᚨ ᛊᛏᛟᚱy ᛟᚠᚨ ᛒᛖᚨᚱ ᚨᚾᛞ\n"
                 "ᚨ ᚹᛟᛚᚠ, ᚹᚺᛟ ᚹᚨᚾᛞᛖᚱᛖᛞ ᛏᚺᛖ\n"
                 "ᚱᛖᚨᛚᛗᛊ ᚾᛁᚾᛖ ᛏᛟ ᚠᚢᛚᚠᛁᛚᛚ ᚨ ᛈᚱᛟᛗᛁᛊᛖ\n"
                 "ᛏᛟ ᛟᚾᛖ ᛒᛖᚠᛟᚱᛖ; ᛏᚺᛖy ᚹᚨᛚᚲ ᛏᚺᛖ\n"
                 "ᛏᚹᛁᛚᛁᚷᚺᛏ ᛈᚨᛏᚺ, ᛞᛖᛊᛏᛁᚾᛖᛞ ᛏᛟ\n"
                 "ᛞᛁᛊcᛟᚹᛖᚱ ᛏᚺᛖ ᛏᚱᚢᛏᚺ\nᛏᚺᚨᛏ ᛁᛊ ᛏᛟ cᛟᛗᛖ."});

  table.format()
      .multi_byte_characters(true)
      // Font styling
      .font_style({FontStyle::bold, FontStyle::dark})
      .font_align(FontAlign::center)
      .font_color(Color::red)
      .font_background_color(Color::yellow)
      // Corners
      .corner_top_left("ᛰ")
      .corner_top_right("ᛯ")
      .corner_bottom_left("ᛮ")
      .corner_bottom_right("ᛸ")
      .corner_top_left_color(Color::cyan)
      .corner_top_right_color(Color::yellow)
      .corner_bottom_left_color(Color::green)
      .corner_bottom_right_color(Color::red)
      // Borders
      .border_top("ᛜ")
      .border_bottom("ᛜ")
      .border_left("ᚿ")
      .border_right("ᛆ")
      .border_left_color(Color::yellow)
      .border_right_color(Color::green)
      .border_top_color(Color::cyan)
      .border_bottom_color(Color::red);

  std::cout << table << std::endl;
}

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Customization Steps

1

Choose your characters

Decide on the characters for borders and corners. You can use ASCII characters (+, -, |) or Unicode symbols.
2

Enable multi-byte support if needed

If using Unicode or other multi-byte characters, call .multi_byte_characters(true) on your format.
3

Set border and corner characters

Use .border_*() and .corner_*() methods to set your chosen characters.
4

Apply colors

Optionally apply colors using .border_*_color() and .corner_*_color() methods.

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Common Border Styles

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Minimalist Style

table.format()
  .border_top(" ")
  .border_bottom(" ")
  .border_left(" ")
  .border_right(" ")
  .corner(" ");

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Classic ASCII

table.format()
  .border_top("-")
  .border_bottom("-")
  .border_left("|")
  .border_right("|")
  .corner("+");

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Box Drawing Characters

table.format()
  .border_top("─")
  .border_bottom("─")
  .border_left("│")
  .border_right("│")
  .corner_top_left("┌")
  .corner_top_right("┐")
  .corner_bottom_left("└")
  .corner_bottom_right("┘")
  .multi_byte_characters(true);
For consistent styling across your table, use the common .border(), .border_color(), and .corner() methods instead of setting each border and corner individually.

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