Shell Programming and Scripting

awk 'END{printf "\n%s\n",n} getline p{n=n (n?ORS:x) p}1' ORS='\t' infile

xargs -n 1 < infile | awk '{n=(NR-1)%r; R[n]=R[n] (R[n]?"\t":x) $1} END{for(i=0;i<r;i++)print R[i]}' r=2

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s1	Demonstrate columnize with standard GNU/Linux column, local my-columns.

# Utility functions: print-as-echo, print-line-with-visual-space, debug.
# export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
pe() { for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
edges() { local _f _n _l;: ${1?"edges: need file"}; _f=$1;_l=$(wc -l $_f);
  head -${_n:=3} $_f ; pe "--- ( $_l: lines total )" ; tail -$_n $_f ; }
db() { ( printf " db, ";for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done;printf "\n" ) >&2 ; }
db() { : ; }
C=$HOME/bin/context && [ -f $C ] && $C column my-columns divepm

FILE=${1-data1}

pl " Input data file $FILE:"
cat $FILE

pl " Results, standard Linux column:"
column -c60 $FILE

pl " Results, work-alike for Linux column, \"my-columns\":"
my-columns -w 60 $FILE

pl " Characteristics of my-columns:"
v1=$( command -v my-columns )
file "$v1" | sed 's/^.*: //' 
pe "Lines: $( wc -l < $( command -v my-columns ) )"
pe "Modules used by my-columns:"
divepm -q -i $v1

exit 0

% ./s1

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.8 (lenny) 
bash GNU bash 3.2.39
column - ( /usr/bin/column, 2007-11-20 )
my-columns (local) 1.2
divepm (local) 1.2

-----
 Input data file data1:
apples
oranges
cats
dogs
sky
monkey
giraffe
cups
spoons
tv
cable

-----
 Results, standard Linux column:
apples	cats	sky	giraffe	spoons	cable
oranges	dogs	monkey	cups	tv

-----
 Results, work-alike for Linux column, "my-columns":
apples   cats  sky     giraffe  spoons  cable
oranges  dogs  monkey  cups     tv    

-----
 Characteristics of my-columns:
a perl script text executable
Lines: 67
Modules used by my-columns:
 1.06	warnings
 1.04	strict
 1.04	English
 1.08	Carp
 2.37	Getopt::Long
 0.4.2	Array::Columnize
 1.11	feature

xargs -n 10 < filename