# Introduction

tinytab is a small library for formatting values and rendering small tables, as text or as HTML. It has no dependencies beyond Python itself.

It exists as an example: a small but complete package that shows how to structure, test, and document a Python library. It isn't published on PyPI.


# Installation

Install tinytab from its GitHub repository:


    Terminal


``` bash
pip install git+https://github.com/rich-iannone/example-python-package.git
```


# A first look

tinytab does three things. It formats single values as strings:


``` python
from tinytab import fmt_currency

fmt_currency(1234.5)
```


    '$1,234.50'


It builds tables, with a formatter attached to any column:


``` python
from tinytab import Table

menu = Table(
    {
        "item": ["coffee", "bagel", "croissant"],
        "price": [3.5, 2.25, 4.0],
    }
)

menu.fmt("price", fmt_currency)
```


| item      | price  |
|-----------|--------|
| coffee    | \$3.50 |
| bagel     | \$2.25 |
| croissant | \$4.00 |


And it summarizes sets of numbers:


``` python
from tinytab import summarize

summarize([3.5, 2.25, 4.0])
```


    SummaryResult(n=3, mean=3.25, sd=0.9014, min=2.25, max=4)


The rest of this guide takes each of these in turn:

- [Formatting Values](formatting-values.md): numbers, percentages, and currencies
- [Tables](tables.md): building, formatting, rendering, and saving tables
- [Summary Statistics](summary-statistics.md): [summarize()](../reference/summarize.md#tinytab.summarize) and its result object