Adding `tbl-colwidths` as a label at the start of Python code cells no longer sets the column width of Markdown tables

[carstrb]

Bug description

In v1.3.450 of quarto, Using labels at the top of code cells to specify table attributes such as tbl-colwidths allowed for per-table formatting when generating a PDF. However, the latest version of quarto (v1.4.551) seems to no longer to adhere to this command, and what results is a table that overruns the margins/boundary of the page that it is rendered on.

Steps to reproduce

The document below renders a simple table using data from mt-cars

---
format: pdf
echo: false
---

```{python}
#| tbl-colwidths: [20,10,15,10,15,15,15,15,15,15,15,10]

import pandas as pd
from IPython.display import Markdown
from tabulate import tabulate

df = pd.read_csv('https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ZeccaLehn/4e06d2575eb9589dbe8c365d61cb056c/raw/64f1660f38ef523b2a1a13be77b002b98665cdfe/mtcars.csv')

df.columns = [
    "Car Name",
    "Fuel Cons. (mpg)",
    "# Cylinders",
    "Displ. (cu.in.)",
    "Gross HP",
    "Rear axle ratio",
    "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    "1/4 mile time",
    "Engine",
    "Trans.",
    "# forward gears",
    "# carburetors",
]

Markdown(
    tabulate(
        df,
        headers="keys",
        showindex=False,
    )
)
```

To run, you'll need to copy the above contents into a .qmd file, and ensure the Python packages below have been installed. The command I use to render is quarto render <DOCUMENT_NAME.qmd>

The packages required to render this document as a pdf are as follows:

jupyter==1.0.0
pandas==2.2.1
ipython==8.22.2
tabulate==0.9.0

Expected behavior

A table that has been given tbl-colwidths arguments should remain within the margins of the page, with multi-line/wrapped headers based on the specified width of its respective column. See the following output below:

Actual behavior

In the case of quarto: v1.4.551, there is no formatting applied to the columns of the table, and so the result is a table that spills outside of the page right margin:

Your environment

• IDE: VSCode [WSL: Ubuntu]: 1.87.2

• Base OS: Windows 11 Home

• Version: 23H2

• OS Build: 22631.3296

• WSL Distribution: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS

• Release: 22.04

• Codename: jammy

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.4.551
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.1.11: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.69.5: OK
      Deno version 1.37.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.4.551
      Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: v2024.03.13
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: TinyTex
      Path: /home/carson/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux
      Version: 2024

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.12.2
      Path: /home/carson/Code/Playground/table_demo/quarto-table-demo/.venv/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 5.7.2
      Kernels: python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........(None)

      Unable to locate an installed version of R.
      Install R from https://cloud.r-project.org/

[mcanouil]

Thanks for the report.

I believe the issue is the width of the markdown table in terms of columns/characters.
There was some issue that were solved.
Could you try the latest 1.5 pre-release?

Could you properly format your post using code blocks for code and terminal outputs? Thanks.
If your code contains code blocks, you need to enclose it using more backticks, i.e., usually four ````.

---

You can share a self-contained "working" (reproducible) Quarto document using the following syntax, i.e., using more backticks than you have in your document (usually four ````).
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#small-is-beautiful-aim-for-a-single-document-with-10-lines.

If you have multiple files (and if it is absolutely required to have multiple files), please share as a Git repository.

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ```  The end. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ```  The end. ````

Additionally and if not already given, please share the output of quarto check within a code blocks (i.e., using three backticks ```txt), see https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#check.

[cscheid]

I can repro this on main: the tbl-colwidth field is not getting forwarded to the table element being produced by the Jupyter cell.

[carstrb]

I can also reproduce this using v1.5.27 (pre-release) of quarto:

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.5.27
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.1.11: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.70.0: OK
      Deno version 1.41.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.5.27
      Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: v2024.03.13
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: TinyTex
      Path: /home/carson/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux
      Version: 2024

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.12.2
      Path: /home/carson/Code/Playground/table_demo/quarto-table-demo/.venv/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 5.7.2
      Kernels: python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........(None)

      Unable to locate an installed version of R.
      Install R from https://cloud.r-project.org/

Output

[cscheid]

The specific bug is that a non-crossreferenceable table element is not getting its elements properly forwarded anymore. I'll fix this shortly. In the meantime, you might be able to work around it by adding a label and caption to your code cell, like this:

```{python}
#| tbl-colwidths: [20,10,15,10,15,15,15,15,15,15,15,10]
#| label: tbl-1
#| tbl-cap: A caption

import pandas as pd
from IPython.display import Markdown
...
```

Which then produces this output:

[carstrb]

Amazing! Thanks for this.

[cscheid]

This is now fixed on main. We need a separate backport because the way we fixed it going forward in 1.5 introduces a new concept, and we don't want to do that in a patch release.

[cscheid]

(reopening for 1.4 fix)