LaTeX tables

The research_helpers.latex module assembles tables, while research_helpers.display reads them back. Neither needs anything outside the standard library.

Assembling

table() is keyword-only:

from research_helpers.latex import bare, dash_range, half_up, header, table

table(
    spec='lrr',
    header_rows=[[header('System'), header('Accuracy'), header('F1')]],
    body_rows=[['Baseline', '71.23', '68.90'], ['Ours', '84.56', '82.01']],
    caption='Performance on the held-out set, in percent.',
    label='tab:scores',
)

spec: The column specification, one character per column, as tabular takes it.
wide=True: Emits table* instead of table, e.g., for a two-column document where the table spans both.
environment: tabulary by default, which sizes columns to their content within a given width. Anything in SIZED_ENVIRONMENTS takes a width argument, tabular does not, and the width is left off.
prologue / setup: LaTeX inserted before the environment and inside it. For things like a \sisetup, or a \renewcommand{\arraystretch}.

The helpers

half_up(): Python’s round() rounds half to even: round(0.685, 2) is 0.68 and round(0.675, 2) is 0.68 as well. half_up rounds half to up, half_up(0.685, 2) yields 0.69.
header(): Wraps a heading in the size and weight the table style uses, and can expand it across columns.
bare(): Escapes LaTeX’s special characters, for text arriving from data.
dash_range(): Turns 1990-2000 into 1990--2000 (i.e. using an en-dash).
EM_DASH: For use on empty cells.

Reading a table back

show() parses the .tex file of a generated table and renders it as a table readable in a notebook:

from pathlib import Path
from research_helpers.display import show

show(Path('tex/tables/scores.tex').read_text())

parse() returns the Table without displaying it (useful for tests), since it includes cells, spans, alignment, rules, caption, and label as data.

parsed = parse(latex)
assert parsed.columns() == 3
assert parsed.body[1].cells[0][0] == 'Ours'

symbols substitutes LaTeX commands for characters when rendering (\textdagger → †), and strip removes commands whose output does not matter for reading.