Cell Formatting

Format individual cells with bold, italic, colors, and other LaTeX styling.

The Cell Class

The Cell class wraps content with formatting options:

from texer import Table, Tabular, Row, Cell, evaluate

table = Tabular(
    columns="lcc",
    header=Row("Name", "Value", "Status"),
    rows=[
        Row(
            Cell("Important", bold=True),
            Cell("42", italic=True),
            Cell("Active", bold=True, italic=True),
        ),
    ],
    toprule=True,
    bottomrule=True,
)

print(evaluate(table, {}))

Bold Text

from texer import Cell

Cell("Bold Text", bold=True)
# Renders as: \textbf{Bold Text}

In a table:

Row(
    Cell("Header 1", bold=True),
    Cell("Header 2", bold=True),
    "Regular cell",
)

Italic Text

Cell("Italic Text", italic=True)
# Renders as: \textit{Italic Text}

Bold + Italic

Cell("Bold and Italic", bold=True, italic=True)
# Renders as: \textbf{\textit{Bold and Italic}}

With Dynamic Data

Use Cell with Ref and Iter:

from texer import Tabular, Row, Cell, Ref, Iter, Format, evaluate

table = Tabular(
    columns="lcc",
    header=Row(
        Cell("Experiment", bold=True),
        Cell("Result", bold=True),
        Cell("P-value", bold=True),
    ),
    rows=Iter(
        Ref("experiments"),
        template=Row(
            Cell(Ref("name"), italic=True),
            Format(Ref("result"), ".3f"),
            Format(Ref("pvalue"), ".4f"),
        )
    ),
    toprule=True,
    bottomrule=True,
)

data = {
    "experiments": [
        {"name": "Trial A", "result": 3.142, "pvalue": 0.0234},
        {"name": "Trial B", "result": 2.718, "pvalue": 0.0012},
    ]
}

print(evaluate(table, data))

Conditional Formatting

Apply formatting based on conditions:

from texer import Cond, Cell, Ref, Iter

rows=Iter(
    Ref("results"),
    template=Row(
        Ref("name"),
        Ref("score"),
        # Bold if score >= 90
        Cond(
            Ref("score") >= 90,
            Cell(Ref("grade"), bold=True),
            Ref("grade"),
        ),
    )
)

Text Colors

Use LaTeX \textcolor directly:

from texer import Cell

# Basic color
Cell(r"\textcolor{red}{Error}")

# With standard colors
Cell(r"\textcolor{blue}{Information}")
Cell(r"\textcolor{green}{Success}")
Cell(r"\textcolor{red}{Failed}")

Color Package

Requires \usepackage{xcolor} in your LaTeX document.

Colored Cells with Conditions

from texer import Cond, Ref, Iter, Row

rows=Iter(
    Ref("tests"),
    template=Row(
        Ref("name"),
        Ref("status"),
        Cond(
            Ref("passed"),
            r"\textcolor{green}{\checkmark}",
            r"\textcolor{red}{\times}",
        ),
    )
)

data = {
    "tests": [
        {"name": "Unit Tests", "status": "Complete", "passed": True},
        {"name": "Integration", "status": "Failed", "passed": False},
    ]
}

Alignment within Cells

Use \multicolumn for cell-specific alignment:

from texer import MultiColumn

Row(
    "Left aligned",
    MultiColumn(1, "r", "Right aligned"),  # Right align this cell
    "Default alignment",
)

Background Colors

Use \cellcolor for cell backgrounds:

from texer import Row

Row(
    "Normal",
    r"\cellcolor{yellow}Highlighted",
    "Normal",
)

Colortbl Package

Requires \usepackage{colortbl} in your LaTeX document.

Font Sizes

from texer import Cell

Cell(r"\small Small text")
Cell(r"\large Large text")
Cell(r"\Large Even larger")
Cell(r"\tiny Tiny text")

Mathematical Content

from texer import Row

Row(
    "Formula",
    r"$\alpha + \beta = \gamma$",
    r"$x^2 + y^2 = r^2$",
)

Combining Formats

Stack multiple formatting options:

from texer import Cell

# Bold italic colored text
Cell(r"\textcolor{blue}{\textbf{\textit{Important Note}}}")

# Or with Cell attributes
Cell(
    r"\textcolor{blue}{Important}",
    bold=True,
    italic=True,
)

Number Formatting

Use Format with Cell:

from texer import Cell, Format, Ref

Row(
    Ref("name"),
    Cell(Format(Ref("value"), ".2f"), bold=True),  # Bold formatted number
    Format(Ref("percent"), ".1%"),                 # Percentage
)

Advanced Number Formatting with FormatNumber

FormatNumber provides enhanced number formatting with support for: - Significant figures - Fixed decimal places - Thousands separators - Automatic handling of -0.00 (removes minus sign) - String passthrough

from texer import FormatNumber, Ref, Iter, Row, Tabular, evaluate

# Significant figures
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), sig=2)  # 1.234 -> "1.2"

# Fixed decimal places
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), decimals=2)  # 1.234 -> "1.23"

# Thousands separator
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), thousands_sep=True)  # 2000 -> "2,000"

# Custom separator
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), thousands_sep=" ")  # 2000 -> "2 000"

# Combine decimals with thousands separator
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), decimals=2, thousands_sep=True)  # 1234.567 -> "1,234.57"

Handling -0.00: By default, FormatNumber removes the minus sign from negative zero:

# value = -0.001
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), decimals=2)  # "-0.001" -> "0.00" (not "-0.00")

# Disable this behavior if needed
FormatNumber(Ref("value"), decimals=2, strip_negative_zero=False)  # -> "-0.00"

Complete example with financial data:

from texer import Tabular, Row, Ref, Iter, FormatNumber, evaluate

table = Tabular(
    columns="lrrr",
    header=Row("Item", "Amount (\\$)", "Count", "Rate (\\%)"),
    rows=Iter(
        Ref("transactions"),
        template=Row(
            Ref("item"),
            FormatNumber(Ref("amount"), decimals=2, thousands_sep=True),
            FormatNumber(Ref("count"), thousands_sep=True),
            FormatNumber(Ref("rate"), decimals=1),
        ),
    ),
    toprule=True,
    midrule=True,
    bottomrule=True,
)

data = {
    "transactions": [
        {"item": "Revenue", "amount": 1234567.89, "count": 15000, "rate": 3.5},
        {"item": "Costs", "amount": 987654.32, "count": 12500, "rate": 2.8},
        {"item": "Profit", "amount": 246913.57, "count": 2500, "rate": 0.7},
    ]
}

print(evaluate(table, data))
# Outputs:
# Revenue & 1,234,567.89 & 15,000 & 3.5 \\
# Costs & 987,654.32 & 12,500 & 2.8 \\
# Profit & 246,913.57 & 2,500 & 0.7 \\

Complete Example

from texer import Table, Tabular, Row, Cell, Ref, Iter, Format, Cond, evaluate

table = Table(
    Tabular(
        columns="llccc",
        header=Row(
            Cell("Student", bold=True),
            Cell("Assignment", bold=True),
            Cell("Score", bold=True),
            Cell("Grade", bold=True),
            Cell("Status", bold=True),
        ),
        rows=Iter(
            Ref("submissions"),
            template=Row(
                Cell(Ref("student"), italic=True),
                Ref("assignment"),
                Format(Ref("score"), ".1f"),
                # Conditional bold for high grades
                Cond(
                    Ref("score") >= 90,
                    Cell(Ref("letter_grade"), bold=True),
                    Ref("letter_grade"),
                ),
                # Colored status
                Cond(
                    Ref("passed"),
                    r"\textcolor{green}{PASS}",
                    r"\textcolor{red}{FAIL}",
                ),
            )
        ),
        toprule=True,
        bottomrule=True,
    ),
    caption="Student Grades",
    label="tab:grades",
)

data = {
    "submissions": [
        {
            "student": "Alice Johnson",
            "assignment": "HW1",
            "score": 95.5,
            "letter_grade": "A",
            "passed": True,
        },
        {
            "student": "Bob Smith",
            "assignment": "HW1",
            "score": 67.3,
            "letter_grade": "D",
            "passed": False,
        },
        {
            "student": "Charlie Brown",
            "assignment": "HW1",
            "score": 88.9,
            "letter_grade": "B",
            "passed": True,
        },
    ]
}

print(evaluate(table, data))

LaTeX Special Characters

Tables do not auto-escape LaTeX special characters. You're expected to write valid LaTeX directly using raw strings:

# Write LaTeX directly with raw strings
Row("Formula", r"$x^2$")  # Renders as: Formula & $x^2$ \\

# For literal special characters, escape them yourself
Row("Price", r"\$100")  # Renders as: Price & \$100 \\
Row("Percent", r"50\%")  # Renders as: Percent & 50\% \\

Raw Strings

Use Python raw strings (r"...") to avoid escaping backslashes.

Custom LaTeX Commands

Use raw strings for custom LaTeX commands:

from texer import Cell

# Custom command
Cell(r"\mycustomcommand{value}")

# With conditionals
Cond(
    Ref("is_important"),
    r"\important{Important!}",
    Ref("text"),
)

Tips

1. Keep it simple: Use Cell(text, bold=True) for common cases
2. Use raw strings: Write r"\textbf{bold}" instead of "\\textbf{bold}"
3. Escape special chars: For literal $, %, &, _, #, use \$, \%, \&, \_, \#
4. Test colors: Different LaTeX distributions may support different colors

Next Steps

• Advanced Features - Multi-column and multi-row cells
• Data-Driven Tables - Combine formatting with dynamic data
• Raw Spec - Complete Raw specification