As the "fields" in your file are separated by a constant char ("|") use
cut to separate them, then print the lines via printf (i assume Kornshell here, use 'echo' instead of 'print' if you are using something else):
Code:
cat infile | while read line ; do
# split each input line to fields and catch these in variables
field1="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f1)"
field2="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f2)"
field3="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f3)"
.....
# after you are done with the line print it out again
# i assume here that the first column should be 20 chars wide, the next
# two 15, and so on. see the second example below.
printf '%20s %15s %15s [...]\n' "$field1" "field2" "$field3" [...] >> outfile
done
This is using (a fixed number of) fixed-width columns and you have to know the widths in advance. It is possible to create dynamically formatted columns but you will have to read the infile two times:
Code:
maxlength1=0
maxlength2=0
....
cat infile | while read line ; do
# in the first run we split and get the max width for each column
field1="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f1)"
length1=$(print - "$field1" | wc -c)
if [ $length1 -gt $maxlength1 ] ; then
maxlength1=$length1
fi
field2="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f2)"
length2=$(print - "$field2" | wc -c)
if [ $length2 -gt $maxlength2 ] ; then
maxlength2=$length1
fi
.....
done
# put together the output template for printf
template='%'"$maxlength1"'s %"'$maxlength2"'s [.....]\n'
cat infile | while read line ; do
# in the second run we split again and print using the found widths
field1="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f1)"
field2="$(print - "$line" | cut -d'|' -f2)"
....
printf "$template" "$field1" "field2" "$field3" [...] >> outfile
done
I'd suggest you use (dynamical) arrays instead the numbered variables to make the script able to deal with a variable number of fields in the input file as a further enhancement. The column separator could then be provided as a parameter making the script as widely usable as possible.
bakunin
