wide-align

What is wide-align?

The wide-align npm package is designed to align text strings in console output, taking into consideration the width of characters in environments where character width can vary (e.g., Unicode characters). It is particularly useful for creating neatly formatted console tables or aligning text in a way that accommodates wide characters.

What are wide-align's main functionalities?

Align text to the center

This feature allows you to center-align a string within a given space. It is useful for creating headers or titles in console output that are visually centered, regardless of the terminal width.

"const wideAlign = require('wide-align');\nconsole.log(wideAlign.center('Some text'));"

Align text to the left

This feature enables left alignment of a string with a specified total width. It's particularly useful for aligning text in columns where the first column's content should start at the same horizontal position.

"const wideAlign = require('wide-align');\nconsole.log(wideAlign.left('Some text', 20));"

Align text to the right

Right-aligns a string within a specified total width. This is useful for aligning numbers or any content that should be right-aligned for better readability or aesthetic reasons.

"const wideAlign = require('wide-align');\nconsole.log(wideAlign.right('Some text', 20));"

Other packages similar to wide-align

string-width

While not directly offering alignment functionalities, string-width is a package that can be used in conjunction with others to achieve similar results. It calculates and returns the visual width of a string, which is crucial for accurately aligning text that includes wide characters. It's a complementary tool rather than a direct alternative.

README

wide-align

A wide-character aware text alignment function for use in terminals / on the console.

Usage

var align = require('wide-align')

// Note that if you view this on a unicode console, all of the slashes are
// aligned. This is because on a console, all narrow characters are
// an en wide and all wide characters are an em. In browsers, this isn't
// held to and wide characters like "古" can be less than two narrow
// characters even with a fixed width font.

console.log(align.center('abc', 10))     // '   abc    '
console.log(align.center('古古古', 10))  // '  古古古  '
console.log(align.left('abc', 10))       // 'abc       '
console.log(align.left('古古古', 10))    // '古古古    '
console.log(align.right('abc', 10))      // '       abc'
console.log(align.right('古古古', 10))   // '    古古古'

Functions

align.center(str, length) → str

Returns str with spaces added to both sides such that that it is length chars long and centered in the spaces.

align.left(str, length) → str

Returns str with spaces to the right such that it is length chars long.

align.right(str, length) → str

Returns str with spaces to the left such that it is length chars long.

Origins

These functions were originally taken from cliui. Changes include switching to the MUCH faster pad generation function from lodash, making center alignment pad both sides and adding left alignment.