Real Python Podcast Episode #214 Title Artwork

Episode 214: Build Captivating Display Tables in Python With Great Tables

The Real Python Podcast

Jul 26, 2024 1h 10m

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Christopher Bailey
Christopher Bailey
Host
Richard Iannone
Richard Iannone
Guest
Michael Chow
Michael Chow
Guest

Do you need help making data tables in Python look interesting and attractive? How can you create beautiful display-ready tables as easily as charts and graphs in Python? This week on the show, we speak with Richard Iannone and Michael Chow from Posit about the Great Tables Python library.

Episode Sponsor:

Michael and Richard discuss the design philosophy and history behind creating display tables. We dig into the grammar of tables, the background of the project, and an ingenious way to build a collection of examples for a library.

We briefly cover how Richard and Michael started contributing to open source. We also discuss practicing data skills with challenges and resources like Tidy Tuesday.

This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap.

Topics:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction
  • 00:02:00 – Michael’s background in open source
  • 00:04:07 – Rich’s background in open source
  • 00:05:27 – Advice for someone starting out
  • 00:08:55 – What do you mean by the term “display” table
  • 00:11:32 – What components were missing from other tables?
  • 00:13:31 – Using examples to explain features
  • 00:16:09 – Why was there an absence of this functionality in Python?
  • 00:19:35 – A progressive approach and the grammar of tables
  • 00:21:26 – Sponsor: Mailtrap
  • 00:22:01 – The design philosophy of great tables
  • 00:25:31 – Nanoplots, spark lines, and column spanners
  • 00:27:06 – Building a gallery of examples
  • 00:28:56 – Heat mapping cells and automatically adjusting text color
  • 00:32:54 – Output formats for the tables
  • 00:34:46 – Building in accessibility
  • 00:36:55 – Dependencies
  • 00:37:42 – What is the common workflow?
  • 00:41:39 – Video Course Spotlight
  • 00:43:15 – Adding graphics
  • 00:46:41 – Using a table contest to get examples
  • 00:49:47 – quartodoc and documenting the project
  • 00:55:00 – Tidy Tuesday and data science community
  • 01:00:29 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
  • 01:03:46 – What do you want to learn next?
  • 01:08:05 – How can people follow the work you do online?
  • 01:09:57 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Level Up Your Python Skills With These Courses:

Jupyter Notebook: An Introduction

Using Jupyter Notebooks

Using ggplot in Python: Visualizing Data With plotnine

Graph Your Data With Python and ggplot

Pandas GroupBy: Your Guide to Grouping Data in Python

pandas GroupBy: Grouping Real World Data in Python

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