Make DataFrame.to_html output full content

[dclong]

Make DataFrame.to_html output full contents by default. Or at least add option to enable outputting full content.

Code Sample

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'id': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
    'link': ['http://a_super_loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong_link.com', '', '', '', '']
})
df.to_html('df.html')

Problem description

By default, pandas uses a short representation of a very long string. However, when outputting to HTML, I think users expect the full content to be outputted rather than a short representation.

Expected Output

Full content output is expected. Or least there should be an option to enable outputting full content.

[gfyoung]

This reminds me of #16911, though I'm not sure if they're completely related. I agree that we should also try to truncate based on column length and not just the number of columns.

cc @jreback

[gfyoung]

@dclong : If you have ideas how to go out implementing such a feature, PR's are welcome!

[DataYI]

The default max_colwidth is 50, and you can set it to a larger number. @dclong

import pandas as pd

pd.options.display.max_colwidth = 100
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'id': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
    'link': ['http://a_super_loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong_link.com', '', '', '', '']
})
df.to_html('df.html')

[glemaitre]

I stumble into this issue. I would have expected to pass the parameter max_colwidth to the to_html method similar to the max_cols and max_rows.

I was wondering which kind of user API would be the best there.

ping @jorisvandenbossche

[simonjayhawkins]

I would think that the default should be to ignore the display.max_colwidth when using to_html(), but this would then prevent users having the ability to truncate the output.

so maybe an additional max_colwidth as @glemaitre suggests having the default value of None to ignore display.max_colwidth, a value of True to honor the display.max_colwidth value, or accept an int to override the display.max_colwidth.

[simonjayhawkins]

a simpler api would be just max_colwidth: bool default False, we have the set_option and option_context to allow changing the value.