Table output (default)

Unicode-bordered tables with bold cyan headers, right-aligned numerics, dim-italic NULLs, and a row-count footer.

Syntax

--format table

Description

## Overview `table` is the default rendering mode for result sets. It produces a human-readable grid with Unicode box-drawing borders, styled headers, and a trailing footer that reports row count and wall-clock execution time. It is tuned for interactive terminal use, not for machine consumption. ## Behavior - Borders are drawn with the `UTF8_FULL` preset (box-drawing characters). Terminals that cannot render those characters correctly will show mojibake; use `compact` or `json` instead. - Header cells are rendered bold in cyan. Numeric-typed columns (all Arrow integer, unsigned integer, float, and decimal variants) are right-aligned in both the header and the body. Non-numeric columns are left-aligned. - `NULL` values are printed as the literal text `NULL` with dim and italic attributes. - Non-null values are stringified via the Arrow value formatter. Dates, timestamps, lists, and structs are rendered with their Arrow display form. - Column widths adapt to content using comfy-table's `Dynamic` content arrangement, which wraps long cell values onto additional lines inside the same cell rather than truncating. - Rows are capped at the CLI's `max_rows` setting (100 by default from `DisplayConfig`). When the result set exceeds the cap, the footer reads `(showing <max_rows> of <row_count> rows, <elapsed>ms)`. Otherwise it reads `(<row_count> rows, <elapsed>ms)`. The footer is rendered dim. - An empty-column result (no schema) prints `(no columns)` and nothing else. - Statements that produce no result set do not use this renderer; see `CLI_OUTPUT_DML_RESULT`.

Examples

delta-forge-cli --format table query SELECT * FROM orders LIMIT 5

delta-forge-cli query SELECT * FROM orders  # table is the default

Pitfalls

• The row cap is a client-side display limit, not a server-side `LIMIT`. The engine still materialises `row_count` rows and streams them to the CLI; only the printed portion is trimmed. Add an explicit `LIMIT` to the SQL when working with large result sets.
• Dynamic column widths mean the same query may render with different column layouts between runs if the terminal is resized or if different rows contain longer values. Do not diff table output across runs; diff `--format json` output instead.
• Long cell values wrap inside the cell, which can make a single logical row span many terminal lines. In narrow terminals this degrades readability; switch to `compact` for log capture or `json` for structured parsing.

See Also

• CLI_OUTPUT_COMPACT
• CLI_OUTPUT_JSON
• CLI_FLAG_FORMAT