hi all,

i have a big problem and i don't know what to do. This is the thing: i have a flat file with 26 fields, which are separated by ';'
by example, i have this:

Peter;Smith;2005;200508; .........

if the lengths of the fields are:
field 1: Alphanumeric[10] - field 2: Alphanumeric[10] - field 3: numeric[8] - field 4: numeric [10] - etc ....
i want this:

Peter ;Smith ;00002005;0000200508;

I need giving format to each field, to get the length of each field, which is established. if the field is numeric, i must fill with zeroes to the left of the number, until the length of the field is completed. if the field is alphanumeric, i must field whit blank spaces to the rigth of the value.

an important thing, is what i must keep the field separator (.

how can i do that¿?
please, help me
thanks for your help

given a sample file debian.txt

Peter;Smith;2005;200508

BEGIN {
  FS=OFS=";"
  PAT_percent="%"
      # 'LENGTH of the fields'
  split("10 10 8 10", arrL, " ")
      # 'TYPE of the fields"
  split("s s d d", arrT, " ")
}

{
  for(i=1; i <= NF; i++) {
    format=sprintf("%c%c%d%s%s", PAT_percent, (arrT[i] == "s") ? "-" : "0", arrL[i], arrT[i], (i<NF) ? OFS : "\n")
    printf(format, $i)
 }
}

Peter     ;Smith     ;00002005;0000200508

thanks vgersh99 - it works ok

Hi,

I tried vgersh's code.but why is that i getting everything aligned right?
I am new to awk.
How can align everything left.

At last I found the answer to my question.
{The change is in bold}
Code:
This will align your output to left.