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How to format columns using AWK

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# 1  
Old 07-24-2009
How to format columns using AWK
Hi,

How to format something like this:

HTML Code:
John Roberts 324-141-984 Acct
Jack Williams 159-555-555 Acct
William Jackson  949-911-888 Acct
Mark J Walton 145-852-252            Acct
Fred P Milton 483-244-390                Acct
Bill P J Miller                 404-050-223  Acct
into this: Using AWK (Equal distance between columns)

HTML Code:
John Roberts                324-141-984        Acct
Jack Williams                159-555-555        Acct
William Jackson             949-911-888        Acct
Mark J Walton              145-852-252        Acct
Fred P Milton               483-244-390        Acct
Bill P J Miller                404-050-223        Acct
As you can see the names are 2,3,4 fields long.

Here is my code but it is not working because the Names column is messing the other columns:

HTML Code:
if (NF >= 6) {
     printf ("\n%s %s %s %-10s %s\t\t %s", $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6)
            }
else
        if (NF == 5) {
     printf ("\n%s %s %-25s %-15s\t %s", $1, $2, $3, $4, $5)
            }
else {
printf ("\n%s %s\t\t\t  %s\t\t %s\t", $1, $2, $3, $4)
     }
}
END { printf("\n")}
Please assist ... Thanks in advance
Last edited by ora_umair; 07-24-2009 at 07:49 PM..
# 2  
Old 07-24-2009
Hi.

Where you have %s, change it to %20s (or another number) (where %20s is the width, padded with spaces to the right, or %-20s to the left).

You did this once already in a couple of column as I can see.
# 3  
Old 07-24-2009
Thanks Scottn!

There are multiple names that are 2,3,4 fields long. Every name is different length.

When I pad with spaces I can fix one line, but the some other line doesn't align and so on.

Is there a way to make the whole name a variable or something and align it from right column to left column.

Sorry ... I have tried it multiple ways but still can not align all columns...
# 4  
Old 07-25-2009
Sorry, yes I should have seen that.

It's a bit tricky if you don't know how many fields there are and you use whitespace (spaces and tabs) to separate them (unless you use 1 tab to separate the fields, in which cast you could say:
Code:
awk -F"\t" ....

Otherwise, exactly four is easy:
Code:
printf( "%-30s %16s %s\n", $1 " " $2, $3, $4 )

Exactly five is easy:
Code:
printf( "%-30s %16s %s\n", $1 " " $2 " " $3, $4, $5 )

I would suggest changing your input file to:
Code:
John Roberts|324-141-984|Acct
Jack Williams|159-555-555|Acct
William Jackson|949-911-888|Acct
Mark J Walton|145-852-252|Acct
Fred P Milton|483-244-390|Acct
Bill P J Miller|404-050-223|Acct

and then use
Code:
awk -F"|" ....

That way the full name is always $1, the number $2 and Acct $3
# 5  
Old 07-25-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by ora_umair
into this: Using AWK (Equal distance between columns)

Code:
John Roberts                324-141-984        Acct
Jack Williams                159-555-555        Acct
William Jackson             949-911-888        Acct
Mark J Walton              145-852-252        Acct
Fred P Milton               483-244-390        Acct
Bill P J Miller                404-050-223        Acct

You have to think backward Smilie
Code:
awk '{a=$(NF-1);b=$NF;$(NF-1)=$NF="";printf "%s%20s%10s\n",$0,a,b}' file

or
Code:
awk '{a=$(NF-1);b=$NF;$(NF-1)=$NF="";printf "%s%+*s%5s\n",$0,30 -length($0),a,b}' file

# 6  
Old 07-25-2009
If you think the number of fields may be more then give that example.
You have to know the data structure and the fields.
I cannot give a solution for some thing I dont know about.

I can change you data to this.
Code:
John Roberts|324-141-984|Acct
Jack Williams|159-555-555|Acct
William Jackson|949-911-888|Acct
Mark J Walton|145-852-252|Acct
Fred P Milton|483-244-390|Acct
Bill P J Miller|404-050-223|Acct

But will it be of any help to you?
# 7  
Old 07-25-2009
edidataguy,

Please tell me how to change the data into "John Roberts|324-141-984|Acct" format. After that I will try to use my script to format.

Thanks!
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