Markdown table prettifier extension for Visual Studio Code

Makes tables more readable for humans. Compatible with the Markdown writer plugin's table formatter feature in Atom.

Features

• Remove redundant ending table border if the beginning has no border, so the table will not end with "|".
• Create missing ending table border if the beginning already has a border, so the table will end with "|".
• Save space by not right-padding the last column if the table has no border.
• Support empty columns inside tables.
• Support column alignment options with ":".
• CLI and docker support to prettify files.

CLI formatting

Formatting files or checking if they're already formatted is possible from the command line. This requires node and npm.

The extension has to be downloaded and compiled:

• Locate the installed extension path or download the extension from Github.
• Go to the extension directory.
• Run npm install.
• Run npm run compile.

The typical location of the installed extension (your actual version might differ):

• Windows %USERPROFILE%.vscode\extensions\darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-3.0.0
• macOS ~/.vscode/extensions/darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-3.0.0
• Linux ~/.vscode/extensions/darkriszty.markdown-table-prettify-3.0.0

Available features from the command line:

• To prettify a file: npm run --silent prettify-md < input.md.
• To prettify a file and save the output: npm run --silent prettify-md < input.md > output.md.
• To check whether a file is prettyfied or not: npm run --silent check-md < input.md. This will fail with an exception and return code 1 if the file is not prettyfied.

Note: the --silent switch sets the npm log level to silent, which is useful to hide the executed file name and concentrate on the actual output.

Formatting with docker

Available features from docker:

• To prettify a file: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md < input.md.
• To prettify a file and save the output: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md < input.md > output.md.
• To check whether a file is prettyfied or not: docker container run -i darkriszty/prettify-md --check < input.md. This will fail with an exception and return code 1 if the file is not prettyfied.

Extension Settings

The extension is available for markdown language mode. It can either prettify a selected table (Format Selection) or the entire document (Format Document). A VSCode command called Prettify markdown tables is also available to format format the currently opened document.

Configurable settings:

• The maximum texth length of a selection/entire document to consider for formatting. Defaults to 1M chars. There is no limit when running from the command line.
• Keyboard shortcut to prettify the currently opened markdown document. Default: CTRL+ALT+M (CMD+ALT+M on Mac).

Known Issues

• Tables with mixed character widths (eg: CJK) are not always properly formatted (issue #4).