Font Alignment

Learn how to align text in table cells using left, center, and right alignment options

Font Alignment

Tabulate supports three font alignment settings to control how text is positioned within table cells. By default, all table content is left-aligned.

Alignment Options

You can align text in cells using the following options:

• FontAlign::left - Align text to the left (default)
• FontAlign::center - Center text horizontally
• FontAlign::right - Align text to the right

Basic Usage

Use .format().font_align(alignment) to set alignment for cells, rows, columns, or the entire table.

// Center align a specific column
table.column(2).format()
  .font_align(FontAlign::center);

// Right align a column
table.column(3).format()
  .font_align(FontAlign::right);

Practical Example

Here’s a complete example showing how to align different columns in a movies table:

#include <tabulate/table.hpp>
using namespace tabulate;

int main() {
  Table movies;
  movies.add_row({"S/N", "Movie Name", "Director", "Estimated Budget", "Release Date"});
  movies.add_row({"tt1979376", "Toy Story 4", "Josh Cooley", "$200,000,000", "21 June 2019"});
  movies.add_row({"tt3263904", "Sully", "Clint Eastwood", "$60,000,000", "9 September 2016"});
  movies.add_row({"tt1535109", "Captain Phillips", "Paul Greengrass", "$55,000,000", " 11 October 2013"});

  // center align 'Director' column
  movies.column(2).format()
    .font_align(FontAlign::center);

  // right align 'Estimated Budget' column
  movies.column(3).format()
    .font_align(FontAlign::right);

  // right align 'Release Date' column
  movies.column(4).format()
    .font_align(FontAlign::right);

  // center-align and color header cells
  for (size_t i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
    movies[0][i].format()
      .font_color(Color::yellow)
      .font_align(FontAlign::center)
      .font_style({FontStyle::bold});
  }

  std::cout << movies << std::endl;
}

Alignment follows the style inheritance model. Cell-level alignment overrides row and column alignment, which in turn overrides table-level alignment.

Alignment Hierarchy

1. Column-level alignment

   Apply alignment to all cells in a column using table.column(index).format().font_align(alignment)

2. Row-level alignment

   Apply alignment to all cells in a row using table[row_index].format().font_align(alignment)

3. Cell-level alignment

   Override alignment for a specific cell using table[row][col].format().font_align(alignment)

Common Patterns

Header Row Centering

A common pattern is to center-align header rows while keeping data rows left-aligned:

// Center all header cells
for (auto& cell : table[0]) {
  cell.format().font_align(FontAlign::center);
}

Numeric Data

For columns containing numeric data (like prices or dates), right alignment typically improves readability:

// Right-align numeric columns
table.column(3).format().font_align(FontAlign::right); // Budget
table.column(4).format().font_align(FontAlign::right); // Date

When working with tables containing numeric data, consider right-aligning those columns for better visual alignment of decimal points and numbers.