Data Explorer: Visually display leading/trailing whitespace and empty strings in data values

src/vs/workbench/services/positronDataExplorer/browser/components/tableDataCell.css

@@ -32,3 +32,7 @@
 .data-grid-row-cell .content .text-container .text-value.special-value {
 	opacity: 0.60;
 }
+
+.data-grid-row-cell .content .text-container .text-value .whitespace {
+	opacity: 0.50;
+}

src/vs/workbench/services/positronDataExplorer/browser/components/tableDataCell.tsx

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import 'vs/css!./tableDataCell';
 import * as React from 'react';
 
 // Other dependencies.
+import { localize } from 'vs/nls';
 import { positronClassNames } from 'vs/base/common/positronUtilities';
 import { DataCell, DataCellKind } from 'vs/workbench/services/positronDataExplorer/common/tableDataCache';
 import { PositronDataExplorerColumn } from 'vs/workbench/services/positronDataExplorer/browser/positronDataExplorerColumn';
@@ -28,17 +29,63 @@ interface TableDataCellProps {
  * @returns The rendered component.
  */
 export const TableDataCell = (props: TableDataCellProps) => {
+	const EMPTY_SPACE_SYMBOL = '\u00B7';
+
+	let isSpecialValue = props.dataCell.kind !== DataCellKind.NON_NULL;
+
+	// Render empty strings as special value
+	// Initialize rendered output parts
+	const parts: (string | JSX.Element)[] = [];
+	const formattedText = props.dataCell.formatted
+		.replace(/\r/g, '\\r')
+		.replace(/\n/g, '\\n');
+
+	// Handle text that is only whitespace
+	if (formattedText.trim() === '') {
+		parts.push(
+			<span className='whitespace'>
+				{EMPTY_SPACE_SYMBOL.repeat(formattedText.length)}
+			</span>
+		);
+	} else {
+		// Handle leading whitespace
+		const leadingMatch = formattedText.match(/^\s+/);
+		if (leadingMatch) {
+			parts.push(
+				<span className='whitespace'>
+					{EMPTY_SPACE_SYMBOL.repeat(leadingMatch[0].length)}
+				</span>
+			);
+		}
+
+		// Add the main content
+		const mainContent = formattedText.trim();
+		parts.push(mainContent);
+
+		// Handle trailing whitespace
+		const trailingMatch = formattedText.match(/\s+$/);
+		if (trailingMatch) {
+			parts.push(
+				<span className='whitespace'>
+					{EMPTY_SPACE_SYMBOL.repeat(trailingMatch[0].length)}
+				</span>
+			);
+		}
+	}
+	let renderedOutput = parts;
+	if (props.dataCell.kind === DataCellKind.NON_NULL && formattedText === '') {
+		isSpecialValue = true;
+		renderedOutput = [`<${localize('positron.dataExplorer.emptyString', "empty")}>`];
+	}
+
 	// Set the class names.
-	const classNames = positronClassNames(
-		'text-value',
-		{ 'special-value': props.dataCell.kind !== DataCellKind.NON_NULL }
-	);
+	const classNames = positronClassNames('text-value', { 'special-value': isSpecialValue });
 
 	// Render.
 	return (
 		<div className={positronClassNames('text-container', props.column.alignment)}>
 			<div className={classNames}>
-				{props.dataCell.formatted.replace(/\r/g, '\\r').replace(/\n/g, '\\n')}
+				{renderedOutput}
 			</div>
 		</div>
 	);