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Word Wrapping

Tabulate supports both automatic and manual word-wrapping to control how text breaks within table cells. This ensures your content fits neatly within defined cell widths.

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Automatic Word Wrapping

When you set a cell width, Tabulate automatically wraps text that exceeds the specified width: 
table[0][0].format().width(20);
Long words that exceed the cell width will break and wrap to the next line.

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Manual Word Wrapping

You can override automatic wrapping by embedding newline characters (\n) in your cell content: 
table.add_row({"This paragraph \nhas embedded '\\n' \ncharacters and\n will break\n exactly where\n you want it\n to\n break."});
Automatic word-wrapping is used only if the cell contents do not have any embedded newline \n characters. If newlines are present, they take precedence.

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Complete Example

Here’s an example demonstrating both automatic and manual word wrapping: 
#include <tabulate/table.hpp>
using namespace tabulate;

int main() {
  Table table;

  table.add_row({"This paragraph contains a veryveryveryveryveryverylong word. The long word will "
                 "break and word wrap to the next line.",
                 "This paragraph \nhas embedded '\\n' \ncharacters and\n will break\n exactly "
                 "where\n you want it\n to\n break."});

  table[0][0].format().width(20);
  table[0][1].format().width(50);

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

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What’s Happening

1

First column (automatic)

The first cell has a width of 20 characters. The long word “veryveryveryveryveryverylong” automatically breaks and wraps to fit within the cell width.
2

Second column (manual)

The second cell has a width of 50 characters, which provides plenty of space. However, the embedded \n characters force line breaks at specific positions, regardless of available space.

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Whitespace Trimming

Regardless of whether word-wrapping is automatic or manual, Tabulate performs a trim operation on each line of each cell to remove whitespace characters from either side.
This ensures consistent formatting and eliminates unintended spacing: 
// These are equivalent after trimming:
table.add_row({"  Text with spaces  "});
table.add_row({"Text with spaces"});

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Setting Cell Width

Control the width of cells at different levels: 
// Set width for a specific cell
table[0][0].format().width(30);

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Handling Long Words

When dealing with very long words or URLs:

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Option 1: Let Automatic Wrapping Handle It

table[0][0].format().width(20);
// Long words will automatically break at the width limit

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Option 2: Insert Manual Breaks

// Break a URL at meaningful points
table.add_row({"https://github.com/\np-ranav/\ntabulate"});

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Option 3: Increase Cell Width

// Provide more space
table[0][0].format().width(50);

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Practical Patterns

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Multi-line Headers

Create descriptive headers with manual line breaks: 
table.add_row({"Employee\nID", "First\nName", "Last\nName", "Department /\nBusiness Unit"});

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Paragraphs in Cells

For longer text content, set an appropriate width and let automatic wrapping do the work: 
table.add_row({"This is a longer paragraph that describes something in detail. "
               "It will automatically wrap to multiple lines based on the cell width."});
table[0][0].format().width(40);

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Fixed-Width Columns

Ensure consistent column widths across your table: 
table.column(0).format().width(30);
table.column(1).format().width(40);
table.column(2).format().width(25);
Combine word wrapping with text alignment for professional-looking tables. For example, use left alignment for text-heavy columns and right alignment for narrow numeric columns.

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Alignment with Word Wrapping

Word wrapping works seamlessly with text alignment: 
table[0][0].format()
  .width(30)
  .font_align(FontAlign::center); // Wrapped text will be centered

table[0][1].format()
  .width(40)
  .font_align(FontAlign::right);  // Wrapped text will be right-aligned
Each wrapped line respects the alignment setting, creating visually consistent multi-line cells.

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