How do I display a Deedle DataFrame as a nice table in FSI?

Question

Reading the article Analyzing and Visualizing Data with F# (https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/analyzing-and-visualizing-data-with-f-sharp/page/2/analyzing-data-using-f-and-deedle) I gathered (perhaps incorrectly) that one could display the contents of a Deedle DataFrame in FSharp Interactive (FSI) as a nice table.

The text fragment that made me think so is the following:

When you create a data frame, F# Interactive formats it nicely so you can get a quick idea about the data. For example, in Table 2-1 you can see the ranges of the values and which values are frequently missing.

These lines were preceded by a nice table showing the contents of a DataFrame.

Without installing and opening FSLab, as recommended in the article, when I can create a DataFrame in FSI and then enter its name and ";;" I get something like this:

> df;;
val it : Frame<int,string> =
  Deedle.Frame`2[System.Int32,System.String]
    {ColumnCount = 2;
     ColumnIndex = Deedle.Indices.Linear.LinearIndex`1[System.String];
     ColumnKeys = seq ["A"; "B"];
     ColumnTypes = seq [System.Int32; System.Int32];
     Columns = series [ A => series [ 0 => 1; 1 => 2; 2 => 3; 3 => 4; 4 => 5;  ... ; 9 => 10]; B => series [ 0 => 11; 1 => 12; 2 => 13; 3 => 14; 4 => 15;  ... ; 9 => 20]];
     ColumnsDense = series [ A => series [ 0 => 1; 1 => 2; 2 => 3; 3 => 4; 4 => 5;  ... ; 9 => 10]; B => series [ 0 => 11; 1 => 12; 2 => 13; 3 => 14; 4 => 15;  ... ; 9 => 20]];
     IsEmpty = false;
     Item = ?;
     Item = ?;
     RowCount = 10;
     RowIndex = Deedle.Indices.Linear.LinearIndex`1[System.Int32];
     RowKeys = seq [0; 1; 2; 3; ...];
     Rows = series [ 0 => series [ A => 1; B => 11]; 1 => series [ A => 2; B => 12]; 2 => series [ A => 3; B => 13]; 3 => series [ A => 4; B => 14]; 4 => series [ A => 5; B => 15];  ... ; 9 => series [ A => 10; B => 20]];
     RowsDense = series [ 0 => series [ A => 1; B => 11]; 1 => series [ A => 2; B => 12]; 2 => series [ A => 3; B => 13]; 3 => series [ A => 4; B => 14]; 4 => series [ A => 5; B => 15];  ... ; 9 => series [ A => 10; B => 20]];}

So I tried to install FSLab, but it seems to have incompatibilities with versions of packages I have previously installed. Installation does not go through and I get the following message:

Severity    Code    Description Project File    Line    Suppression State
Error       Unable to resolve dependencies. 'FSharp.Data 2.4.6' is not compatible with 'FsLab 1.0.2 constraint: FSharp.Data (= 2.3.2)'.         0   

I suspect there is a simple solution to this problem.

So,

1) Is it true that I can get a nice table displaying the contents of a Deedle DataFrame in FSI (much as one does, for example, in RStudio for R)?

2) If yes, what should I do to be able to visualize such tables without moving backwards the versions of packages I have installed?

Answer 1

The printers for F# Interactive are registered automatically if you reference Deedle using the Deedle.fsx load script that is included in the package:

#load "packages/Deedle/Deedle.fsx"
open Deedle

let df = 
  [ "First" => Series.ofValues [1;2;3;4]
    "Second" => Series.ofValues [1;2;3;4] ]
  |> frame

If you reference Deedle using Paket and run the above code, you get nice print-out. Alternatively, you can also get the same output by explicitly calling:

df.Print()