Printing Fixed Width Columns Post: 302407148

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Printing Fixed Width Columns Post 302407148 by alister on Wednesday 24th of March 2010 04:49:01 PM

03-24-2010

Registered User

Hi, cixelsyd:

Welcome to the forums. I believe what you want to check out is printf. It is usually a shell built-in, but is probably also available as a standalone executable if not builtin. printf is also available as a function within AWK. You can use it to print out fixed width columns regardless of the string argument's length.

An example showing how to print out two 10 character wide, left-justified columns (separated by a space):

Code:

$ one=1 four=4444 six=666666 nine=999999999
$ echo $one $four; echo $six $nine
1 4444
666666 999999999
$ printf '%-10s %-10s\n' $one $four; printf '%-10s %-10s\n' $six $nine
1          4444      
666666     999999999

Note that if the string is wider than the column's width (in this case 10), the column will expand to accomodate the data and break the formatting. So, you'll need to choose a width that should seldom if ever be exceeded, or truncate the string to 10 prior to passing it to printf.

In bash, you should definitely have printf builtin. Perhaps something similar to the following will work for you:

Code:

printf '\t%-25s %-25s %-25s\n' "${srcAddyArray[$i]}" "${dstAddyArray[$i]}" "${serviceArray[$i]}"

Regards,
Alister

Last edited by alister; 03-24-2010 at 06:59 PM.. Reason: switch to left-justified fields

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libbash

LIBBASH(7)							  libbash Manual							LIBBASH(7)

NAME

     libbash -- A bash shared libraries package.

DESCRIPTION

     libbash  is  a package that enables bash dynamic-like shared libraries. Actually its a tool for managing bash scripts whose functions you may
     want to load and use in scripts of your own.

     It contains a 'dynamic loader' for the shared libraries ( ldbash(1)), a configuration tool (ldbashconfig(8)), and some libraries.

     Using ldbash(1) you are able to load loadable bash libraries, such as getopts(1) and hashstash(1).  A bash shared library that can be  loaded
     using
     ldbash(1) must answer 4 requirments:

     1.     It must be installed in $LIBBASH_PREFIX/lib/bash (default is /usr/lib/bash).

     2.     It must contain a line that begins with '#EXPORT='.  That line will contain (after the '=') a list of functions that the library
	    exports.  I.e. all the function that will be usable after loading that library will be listed in that line.

     3.     It must contain a line that begins with '#REQUIRE='.  That line will contain (after the '=') a list of bash libraries that are
	    required for our library.  I.e. every bash library that is in use in our bash library must be listed there.

     4.     The library must be listed (For more information, see ldbashconfig(8)).

   Basic guidelines for writing library of your own:
     1.     Be aware, that your library will be actually sourced. So, basically, it should contain (i.e define) only functions.

     2.     Try to declare all variables intended for internal use as local.

     3.     Global variables and functions that are intended for internal use (i.e are not defined in '#EXPORT=') should begin with:
		  __<library_name>_
	    For example, internal function myfoosort of hashstash library should be named as
		  __hashstash_myfoosort
	    This helps to avoid conflicts in global name space when using libraries that come from different vendors.

     4.     See html manual for full version of this guide.

AUTHORS

     Hai Zaar <haizaar@haizaar.com>
     Gil Ran <ril@ran4.net>

SEE ALSO

     ldbash(1), ldbashconfig(8), getopts(1), hashstash(1) colors(1) messages(1) urlcoding(1) locks(1)

Linux								       Epoch								     Linux

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