Pandas DataFrames and Series as Interactive DataTables¶

Turn pandas DataFrames and Series into interactive datatables in your notebooks!

Quick start¶

Install the package with

pip install itables

Activate the interactive mode for all series and dataframes with

In [1]:

from itables import init_notebook_mode
init_notebook_mode(all_interactive=True)

Then any dataframe will be displayed as an interactive datatables table:

In [2]:

import world_bank_data as wb

df = wb.get_countries()
df

Out[2]:

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

If you want to display just one series or dataframe as an interactive table, use itables.show:

In [3]:

from itables import show

x = wb.get_series("SP.POP.TOTL", mrv=1, simplify_index=True)
show(x)

	SP.POP.TOTL
Loading...

(NB: In Jupyter Notebook and Jupyter NBconvert, you need to call init_notebook_mode() before using show).

You don't see any table above? Please either open the HTML export of this notebook, or run this README on Binder!

Supported environments¶

itables has been tested in the following editors:

Jupyter Notebook
Jupyter Lab
Jupyter nbconvert (i.e. the tables are still interactive in the HTML export of a notebook)
Google Colab
VS Code (for both Jupyter Notebooks and Python scripts)
PyCharm (for Jupyter Notebooks)
Nteract

Table not loading?¶

If the table just says "Loading...", then maybe

You loaded a notebook that is not trusted (run "Trust Notebook" in View / Activate Command Palette)
Or you are offline?

At the moment itables does not have an offline mode. While the table data is embedded in the notebook, the jquery and datatables.net are loaded from a CDN, see our require.config and our table template, so an internet connection is required to display the tables.

Advanced usage¶

As itables is mostly a wrapper for the Javascript datatables.net library, you should be able to find help on the datatables.net forum and examples for most formatting issues.

Below we give a few examples of how the datatables.net examples can be translated to Python with itables.

Row sorting¶

Select the order in which the row are sorted with the datatables' order argument. By default, the rows are sorted according to the first column (order = [[0, 'asc']]).

If you want to deactivate the sorting, set order = [], either in the show method, or as a global option:

In [4]:

import pandas as pd
import itables.options as opt

opt.order = []  # no sorting
pd.DataFrame({'a':[2,1]})

Out[4]:

a
Loading...

How many rows per page¶

Select how many entries should appear at once in the table with either the lengthMenu argument of the show function, or with the global option itables.options.lengthMenu:

In [5]:

import itables.options as opt

opt.lengthMenu = [2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500]
df

Out[5]:

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

Show the table in full¶

Show the table in full with the paging argument, either in the show method, or in the options:

In [6]:

show(df.head(), paging=False)

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

Scroll¶

If you prefer to replace the pagination with a vertical scroll, use for instance

In [7]:

show(df, scrollY="200px", scrollCollapse=True, paging=False)

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

Table and cell style¶

Select how your table should look like with the classes argument of the show function, or by changing itables.options.classes. For the list of possible values, see datatables' default style and the style examples.

In [8]:

opt.classes = ["display", "nowrap"]
df

Out[8]:

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

In [9]:

opt.classes = ["display", "cell-border"]
df

Out[9]:

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

Float precision¶

Floats are rounded using pd.options.display.float_format. Please change that format according to your preference.

In [10]:

import math
import pandas as pd

with pd.option_context("display.float_format", "{:,.2f}".format):
    show(pd.Series([i * math.pi for i in range(1, 6)]))

0
Loading...

You may also choose to convert floating numbers to strings:

In [11]:

with pd.option_context("display.float_format", "${:,.2f}".format):
    show(pd.Series([i * math.pi for i in range(1, 6)]))

0
Loading...

Advanced cell formatting with JS callbacks¶

You can use Javascript callbacks to set the cell or row style depending on the cell content.

The example below, in which we color in red the cells with negative numbers, is directly inspired by the corresponding datatables.net example.

In [12]:

show(
    pd.DataFrame([[-1, 2, -3, 4, -5], [6, -7, 8, -9, 10]], columns=list("abcde")),
    columnDefs=[
        {
            "targets": "_all",
            "createdCell": """
function (td, cellData, rowData, row, col) {
    if (cellData < 0) {
        $(td).css('color', 'red')
    }
}
""",
        }
    ],
    eval_functions=True,
)

a	b	c	d	e
Loading...

Column width¶

For tables that are larger than the notebook, the columnDefs argument allows to specify the desired width. If you wish you can also change the default in itables.options.

In [13]:

show(x.to_frame().T, columnDefs=[{"width": "120px", "targets": "_all"}])

WARNING:itables.downsample:showing 1x20 of 1x266 as maxColumns=20. See https://mwouts.github.io/itables/#downsampling

	Africa Eastern and Southern	Africa Western and Central	Arab World	Caribbean small states	Central Europe and the Baltics	Early-demographic dividend	East Asia & Pacific	East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)	East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries)	Euro area	Uruguay	Uzbekistan	Vanuatu	Venezuela, RB	Vietnam	Virgin Islands (U.S.)	West Bank and Gaza	Yemen, Rep.	Zambia	Zimbabwe
Loading...

Cell alignment¶

You can use the datatables.net cell classes like dt-left, dt-center, dt-right etc to set the cell alignment. Specify it for one table by using the columnDefs argument of show

In [14]:

show(df, columnDefs=[{"className":"dt-center",  "targets": "_all"}])

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

or globally by setting opt.columnDefs:

In [15]:

opt.columnDefs = [{"className":"dt-center", "targets": "_all"}]
df

Out[15]:

	iso2Code	name	region	adminregion	incomeLevel	lendingType	capitalCity	longitude	latitude
Loading...

In [16]:

del opt.columnDefs

HTML in cells¶

In [17]:

import pandas as pd

show(
    pd.Series(
        [
            "<b>bold</b>",
            "<i>italic</i>",
            '<a href="https://github.com/mwouts/itables">link</a>',
        ],
        name="HTML",
    ),
    paging=False,
)

HTML
Loading...

Select rows¶

Not currently implemented. May be made available at a later stage using the select extension for datatables.

Copy, CSV, PDF and Excel buttons¶

Not currently implemented. May be made available at a later stage thanks to the buttons extension for datatable.

Downsampling ¶

When the data in a table is larger than maxBytes, which is equal to 64KB by default, itables will display only a subset of the table - one that fits into maxBytes. If you wish, you can deactivate the limit with maxBytes=0, change the value of maxBytes, or similarly set a limit on the number of rows (maxRows, defaults to 0) or columns (maxColumns, defaults to pd.get_option('display.max_columns')).

Note that datatables support server-side processing. At a later stage we may implement support for larger tables using this feature.

In [18]:

df = wb.get_indicators().head(500)
opt.maxBytes = 10000
df.values.nbytes

Out[18]:

In [19]:

df

WARNING:itables.downsample:showing 250x3 of 500x6 as nbytes=24000>10000=maxBytes. See https://mwouts.github.io/itables/#downsampling

Out[19]:

	name	unit	topics
Loading...

To show the table in full, we can modify the value of maxBytes either locally:

In [20]:

show(df, maxBytes=0)

	name	unit	source	sourceNote	sourceOrganization	topics
Loading...

or globally:

In [21]:

opt.maxBytes = 2**20
df

Out[21]:

	name	unit	source	sourceNote	sourceOrganization	topics
Loading...

References¶

DataTables¶

DataTables is a plug-in for the jQuery Javascript library. It has a great documentation, and a large set of examples.
The R package DT uses datatables.net as the underlying library for both R notebooks and Shiny applications. In addition to the standard functionalities of the library (display, sort, filtering and row selection), RStudio seems to have implemented cell edition.

Alternatives¶

ITables uses basic Javascript. It is not a Jupyter widget, which means that it does not allows you to edit the content of the dataframe.

If you are looking for Jupyter widgets, have a look at

QGrid by Quantopian
IPyaggrid by Louis Raison and Olivier Borderies
IPySheet by QuantStack.

If you are looking for a table component that will fit in Dash applications, see datatable by Dash.

Please also checkout D-Tale for exploring your Python DataFrames in the browser, using a local server.