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Full Discussion: How can I format a text file into uniform columns?
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting How can I format a text file into uniform columns? Post 302630811 by drl on Thursday 26th of April 2012 09:52:29 AM
Old 04-26-2012
Hi.

Here is an approach using standard utility expand:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s2	Demonstrate preparing and aligning text fields, sed, expand.

pe() { for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
db() { ( printf " db, ";for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done;printf "\n" ) >&2 ; }
db() { : ; }
C=$HOME/bin/context && [ -f $C ] && $C sed expand

FILE=${1-data1}
pl " Input file $FILE:"
cat -A $FILE

pl " Results of expand:"
sed 's/   */\t/g' $FILE |
expand -t '20,30,50' |
tee f1

pl " Displaying special characters (if any) in output:"
cat -A f1

exit 0

producing:
Code:
% ./s2

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
sed GNU sed version 4.1.5
expand (GNU coreutils) 6.10

-----
 Input file data1:
Charles Dixon  Age 23       Hometown Darlington  Postcode DL1 2DC$
Fred Bixton  Age 34  Hometown Leeds     Postcode LS1 5XS$
Jim Davis            Age 48      Hometown Cardiff  CF2 8YY$

-----
 Results of expand:
Charles Dixon       Age 23    Hometown Darlington Postcode DL1 2DC
Fred Bixton         Age 34    Hometown Leeds      Postcode LS1 5XS
Jim Davis           Age 48    Hometown Cardiff    CF2 8YY

-----
 Displaying special characters (if any) in output:
Charles Dixon       Age 23    Hometown Darlington Postcode DL1 2DC$
Fred Bixton         Age 34    Hometown Leeds      Postcode LS1 5XS$
Jim Davis           Age 48    Hometown Cardiff    CF2 8YY$

This uses the same idea of transforming runs of spaces into TABs, then do the expand.

Obviously, this is not automatic, but it seems easier than awk-printf. You do not however, get the flexibility of right-left-center justification.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl
 

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LEARN ABOUT PHP

expand

EXPAND(1)							   User Commands							 EXPAND(1)

NAME

       expand - convert tabs to spaces

SYNOPSIS

       expand [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

       Convert tabs in each FILE to spaces, writing to standard output.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -i, --initial
	      do not convert tabs after non blanks

       -t, --tabs=N
	      have tabs N characters apart, not 8

       -t, --tabs=LIST
	      use  comma  separated  list of tab positions The last specified position can be prefixed with '/' to specify a tab size to use after
	      the last explicitly specified tab stop.  Also a prefix of '+' can be used to align remaining tab stops relative to the  last  speci-
	      fied tab stop instead of the first column

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

       GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report expand translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

       unexpand(1)

       Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/expand>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) expand invocation'

GNU coreutils 8.28						   January 2018 							 EXPAND(1)
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