Strange Quarto output using PrettyTables

General Usage
1

I have a relatively simple task I want to achieve: Render a quarto notebook into Markdown, so that I can include it in my docs.
I am of course running QuartoNotebookRunner.jl.

When I have to work with tables, using PrettyTables.jl would be nice to have, I think. However, I can not get that to work. Here is an (n)MWE, where the project in the same folder as the qmd file should contain Also DataFrames.jl

```{julia}
using Pkg;
cd(@__DIR__)
Pkg.activate(".");
Pkg.status() # just to illustrate package versions below
```
```{julia}
#| output: false
using PrettyTables, DataFrames
df = DataFrame(:a => [1,2,3], :b => [4,5,6])
```
```{julia}
# printing into normal output/code I get a nice markdown table,
# but this does only render in code and not as a nice markdown table
pretty_table(df, backend = :markdown, column_labels = ["A", "B"])
```
```{julia}
#| output: asis
# This `output: asis` should do the same as above without the code env, but always and only prints [TABLE]
# instead. Why? and how to fix this?
pretty_table(df, backend = :markdown, column_labels = ["A", "B"])
```

As the comments in the code suggest the result is a bit unsatisfying: The first pretty print is a code cell, so that does not render into a table in the following. The second (or fourth cell) I hoped to get what I hoped for, but:

      [a93c6f00] DataFrames v1.8.0
      [08abe8d2] PrettyTables v3.1.0

``` julia
# printing into normal output/code I get a nice markdown table,
# but this does only render in code and not as a nice markdown table
pretty_table(df, backend = :markdown, column_labels = ["A", "B"])
```

    | **A** | **B** |
    |------:|------:|
    |     1 |     4 |
    |     2 |     5 |
    |     3 |     6 |

``` julia
# This `output: asis` should do the same as above without the code env, but always and only prints [TABLE]
# instead. Why? and how to fix this?
pretty_table(df, backend = :markdown, column_labels = ["A", "B"])
```

[TABLE]

So Why does the last cell not just do the same as the second to last just without the 4 spaces upfront? I can not get this to work. Any hints appreciated.

2 Likes
2

I also posted it here with quarto, because if one captures the result in a string and prints that it depends on whether the line before the table is empty or not whether it is printed correctly (for no empty line) or not.

3

Here is one possible solution. For Documenter.jl we need ´commonmark´ as a format. We do want to avoid that e.g. images are refactored to HTML, which is valid Markdown but would not work with Documenter, and let’s keep Math TeX in $. The -raw_html also turns (already transformed) HTML tables into [TABLE]. The solution to that is to add +pipe_tables to keep piped tables.
Overall:

format:
  commonmark:
    variant: +pipe_tables+tex_math_dollars-raw_html
    wrap: preserve