Repository navigation
Option to show table column descriptions in show_in_notebook() #9660
Description
Description
It would be nice to have the ability to reveal the column descriptions in the table headers if they are there. I'd probably put this as the default, but if not, it would be good to at least include it as an option.
Additional context
As far as I can tell the only way to see the column descriptions is with table.info() or by introspecting or saving to a format that saves the metadata. At least one of the print options ought to have the ability to put the descriptions in the header. show_in_notebook and even show_in_browser seem like the simplest solution, since it could be implemented as a keyword option.
Activity
taldcroft commentedon Nov 24, 2019
My main concern on this is that in my experience the "description" tends to be on the long side and so putting it into the table header will generally make the plaintext render of the table useless. However, for HTML-based output, one could imagine having a hover-over on the column name that provides the description if available.
FYI, the following location is where one might go to add an option to show description in the header:
astropy/astropy/table/pprint.py
Line 364 in 918abcd
hcferguson commentedon Nov 25, 2019
I like the idea of a hover option.