modbender Telegram ASCII Tables
Format tabular data as ASCII box-drawing tables that render correctly in Telegram code blocks.
Quick Start
{baseDir}/scripts/ascii-table.py <<'EOF'
Name|Value|Status
Server|web-01|Online
Database|db-01|Syncing
EOF
Wrap output in triple backticks when sending to Telegram.
Usage
Heredoc (recommended)
# Desktop mode (default): Unicode box chars, 58 char width
ascii-table <<'EOF'
Server|Status|Uptime
web-01|Online|14d 3h
db-01|Syncing|2d 12h
EOF
# Mobile mode: ASCII chars, 48 char width
ascii-table --mobile <<'EOF'
Task|Status
Deploy|Done
Test|Pending
EOF
# Custom width
ascii-table --width 80 <<'EOF'
Column|Another Column
data|more data
EOF
Pipe
cat data.txt | ascii-table
echo -e 'Name|Value\nRow1|Data1' | ascii-table
some-command | ascii-table --mobile
Options
┌───────────┬───────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Flag │ Short │ Description │
├───────────┼───────┼────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --desktop │ -d │ Unicode box chars, 58 char width (DEFAULT) │
├───────────┼───────┼────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --mobile │ -m │ ASCII chars, 48 char width │
├───────────┼───────┼────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --width N │ -w N │ Override default width │
└───────────┴───────┴────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Mode Comparison
┌───────────────┬──────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
│ Aspect │ Desktop (default) │ Mobile │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ Characters │ Box drawing │ ASCII (+ - chars) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ Default width │ 58 chars │ 48 chars │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ Rendering │ Clean on desktop │ Reliable everywhere │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ Use when │ Recipient on desktop │ Recipient on mobile │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘
Unicode box-drawing characters render at inconsistent widths on mobile Telegram. Use --mobile for mobile recipients.
Input Format
- One row per line via stdin
- Columns separated by
| - Empty lines ignored
- Whitespace around cells trimmed
Output Examples
Desktop
┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ Server │ Status │ Uptime │
├──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ web-01 │ Online │ 14d 3h │
├──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ db-01 │ Syncing │ 2d 12h │
└──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
Mobile
+------------+----------+----------+
| Server | Status | Uptime |
+------------+----------+----------+
| web-01 | Online | 14d 3h |
+------------+----------+----------+
| db-01 | Syncing | 2d 12h |
+------------+----------+----------+
With Wrapping
┌─────────┬────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Task │ Status │ Notes │
├─────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Deploy │ Done │ Rolled out to prod successfully │
│ API │ │ │
├─────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Fix bug │ WIP │ Waiting on upstream OAuth fix │
└─────────┴────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘
Design Note: Stdin-Only Input
This script intentionally does not accept row data as CLI arguments.
Shell argument parsing happens before any script runs. Characters like `, $, and ! in double-quoted args get executed or expanded by the shell — not by the script receiving them. For example, `whoami` would execute and substitute its output before the script ever sees it.
By requiring stdin input, user data bypasses shell parsing entirely. A quoted heredoc (<<'EOF') passes everything through literally — no escaping needed, no execution possible.
Limitations
- Pipe delimiter —
|separates columns (cannot appear in cell content) - Word breaks — long words may split mid-word
- Wide characters — emoji/CJK may cause alignment issues
- Left-aligned only — no numeric right-alignment