Changing format of empty table cells

[CookiePolicyEnforcer]

Is it possible to change the format of empty table cells? My goal is to change the font of some empty cells to Calibri. But no matter what I try, they always revert to the default Cambria font.

Here is my current code:

def format_cell(cell, font_name, font_size, bold=False):

    # Add run if cell is empty
    if not cell.text.strip():
        paragraph = cell.paragraphs[0]
        paragraph.add_run("")  # Works with .add_run(" ")

    # Apply format
    for paragraph in cell.paragraphs:
        for run in paragraph.runs:
            run.font.size = Pt(font_size)
            run.font.name = font_name
            run.font.bold = bold

This code works when I add a space using paragraph.add_run(" "), but I need the cells to remain completely empty. I also attempted a workaround where I add a space, apply the formatting, and then remove the space. But the cells still end up with the default font.

Here is the code for my workaround:

def format_cell(cell, font_name, font_size, bold=False):
    was_empty = not cell.text.strip()

    # Add temporary space
    if was_empty:
        paragraph = cell.paragraphs[0]
        paragraph.add_run(" ")

    # Apply format
    for paragraph in cell.paragraphs:
        for run in paragraph.runs:
            run.font.size = Pt(font_size)
            run.font.name = font_name
            run.font.bold = bold

    # Remove temporary space
    if was_empty:
        cell.text = ""

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[CookiePolicyEnforcer]

Solution: You need to create a custom style for your table so that when you have an empty cell, the custom style is applied instead of the default style.

Another tip: You can use this custom style to change the language of the table.

doc = Document()

# Custom table style
table_style = doc.styles.add_style("table_style", docx.enum.style.WD_STYLE_TYPE.TABLE)
table_style.font.name = "Calibri Light (Überschriften)"
table_style.font.size = docx.shared.Pt(8)

# Optional: set language
lang = docx.oxml.shared.OxmlElement('w:lang')
lang.set(docx.oxml.shared.qn('w:val'), 'de-DE')
table_style._element.rPr.append(lang)

# Create table with custom style
table = doc.add_table(rows=3, cols=10, style="table_style")

[scanny]

Nice work @CookiePolicyEnforcer :)