Python TableFu is a tool for manipulating spreadsheet-like tables in Python. It began as a Python implementation of ProPublica's TableFu, though new methods have been added. TableFu allows filtering, faceting and manipulating of data. Going forward, the project aims to create something akin to an ORM for spreadsheets.

>>> from table_fu import TableFu
>>> table = TableFu.from_file('tests/test.csv')
>>> table.columns
['Author', 'Best Book', 'Number of Pages', 'Style']

# get all authors
>>> table.values('Author')
['Samuel Beckett', 'James Joyce', 'Nicholson Baker', 'Vladimir Sorokin']

# total a column
>>> table.total('Number of Pages')
1177.0

# filtering a table returns a new instance
>>> t2 = table.filter(Style='Modernism')
>>> list(t2)
[<Row: Samuel Beckett, Malone Muert, 120, Modernism>,
 <Row: James Joyce, Ulysses, 644, Modernism>]


# each TableFu instance acts like a list of rows
>>> table[0]
<Row: Samuel Beckett, Malone Muert, 120, Modernism>

list(table.rows)
[<Row: Samuel Beckett, Malone Muert, 120, Modernism>,
 <Row: James Joyce, Ulysses, 644, Modernism>,
 <Row: Nicholson Baker, Mezannine, 150, Minimalism>,
 <Row: Vladimir Sorokin, The Queue, 263, Satire>]

# rows, in turn, act like dictionaries
>>> row = table[1]
>>> print row['Author']
James Joyce

# transpose a table
>>> t2 = table.transpose()
>>> list(t2)
[<Row: Best Book, Malone Muert, Ulysses, Mezannine, The Queue>,
 <Row: Number of Pages, 120, 644, 150, 263>,
 <Row: Style, Modernism, Modernism, Minimalism, Satire>]

>>> t2.columns
['Author',
 'Samuel Beckett',
 'James Joyce',
 'Nicholson Baker',
 'Vladimir Sorokin']

# sort rows
>>> table.sort('Author')
>>> table.rows
[<Row: James Joyce, Ulysses, 644, Modernism>,
 <Row: Nicholson Baker, Mezannine, 150, Minimalism>,
 <Row: Samuel Beckett, Malone Muert, 120, Modernism>,
 <Row: Vladimir Sorokin, The Queue, 263, Satire>]

# sorting is stored
table.options['sorted_by']
{'Author': {'reverse': False}}

# which is handy because...

# tables can also be faceted (and options are copied to new tables)
>>> for t in table.facet_by('Style'):
...     print t.faceted_on
...     t.table
Minimalism
[['Nicholson Baker', 'Mezannine', '150', 'Minimalism']]
Modernism
[['Samuel Beckett', 'Malone Muert', '120', 'Modernism'],
 ['James Joyce', 'Ulysses', '644', 'Modernism']]
Satire
[['Vladimir Sorokin', 'The Queue', '263', 'Satire']]

Here's an advanced example that uses faceting and filtering to produce aggregates from this spreadsheet (extracted from the New York Times Congress API).

Filters are just functions that take a value and some number of positional arguments. New filters can be registered with the included Formatter class.

>>> from table_fu.formatting import Formatter
>>> format = Formatter()
>>> def capitalize(value, *args):
...     return str(value).capitalize()
>>> format.register(capitalize)
>>> print format('foo', 'capitalize')
Foo

Cells can be formatted according to rules of the table (which carry over if the table is faceted):

>>> table = TableFu(open('tests/sites.csv'))
>>> table.columns
['Name', 'URL', 'About']
>>> table.formatting = {
... 'Name': {'filter': 'link', 'args': ['URL']}
... }
>>> print table[0]['Name']
<a href="http://www.chrisamico.com" title="ChrisAmico.com">ChrisAmico.com</a>

TableFu can output an HTML table, using formatting you specify:

>>> table = TableFu(open('tests/sites.csv'))
>>> table.columns
['Name', 'URL', 'About']
>>> table.formatting = {'Name': {'filter: 'link', 'args': ['URL']}}
>>> table.columns = 'Name', 'About'
>>> print table.html()
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Name</th><th>About</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr id="row0" class="row even"><td class="datum"><a href="http://www.chrisamico.com" title="ChrisAmico.com">ChrisAmico.com</a></td><td class="datum">My personal site and blog</td></tr>
<tr id="row1" class="row odd"><td class="datum"><a href="http://www.propublica.org" title="ProPublica">ProPublica</a></td><td class="datum">Builders of the Ruby version of this library</td></tr>
<tr id="row2" class="row even"><td class="datum"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour" title="PBS NewsHour">PBS NewsHour</a></td><td class="datum">Where I spend my days</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>