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Aligning columns in a text file using Perl

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# 1  
Old 04-06-2012
Aligning columns in a text file using Perl
Hi All,

I am new to perl and was trying to write a simple program which will generate a text file as output..

now the output which i am getting is something like this..

Code:
==================================================================================================
Col1                                         |                     Col2
==================================================================================================
value1                                                            Updated this row
value1                                                            Updated this row also
value1                                                            Updated again
value1                                                            Changed table contents
value-value-value-value-value2                                  added few lines of code
value-value-value-value-value2                                  added another few lines using perl
ABCDEFGH                                                updated code to add few lines
TESTING                                              added new testing procedure
TESTING AGAIN                                                  Updated General info
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                                      Updated information
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                                      Updated home address
==================================================================================================

the code i am using to get the above output is

Code:
printf MY_FILE ( "%s \t\t\t\t\t %-20s\n",$title,$desc);

i want output to be in this pattern

Code:
==================================================================================================
Col1                                                      | Col2
==================================================================================================
value1                                                    | Updated this row
value1                                                    | Updated this row also
value1                                                    | Updated again
value1                                                    | Changed table contents
value-value-value-value-value2                            | added few lines of code
value-value-value-value-value2                            | added another few lines using perl
ABCDEFGH                                                  | updated code to add few lines
TESTING                                                   | added new testing procedure
TESTING AGAIN                                             | Updated General info
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                          | Updated information
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                          | Updated home address
==================================================================================================

please help me to get this output in alligned manner!!
# 2  
Old 04-06-2012
Hi smarty86,

Somthing like:
Code:
printf MY_FILE "%-50s | %-30s\n", $title, $desc

This User Gave Thanks to birei For This Post:
smarty86
# 3  
Old 04-08-2012
Thanks buddy.. This is working great,..

Now if I want to limit no. of characters in first columns to somevalue and if it exceeds that many characters then it should go to next line.. how can i do that?

like
Code:
==================================================================================================
Col1                                                      | Col2
==================================================================================================
value1                                                    | Updated this row
value1                                                    | Updated this row also
value1                                                    | Updated again
value1                                                    | Changed table contents
value-value-value-value
-value2                            			  | added few lines of code
value-value-value-value
-value2                            			  | added another few lines using perl
ABCDEFGH                                                  | updated code to add few lines
TESTING                                                   | added new testing procedure
TESTING AGAIN                                             | Updated General info
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN 
AND AGAIN                          		          | Updated information
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN 
AND AGAIN                          		          | Updated home address
==================================================================================================

the value in the 5,6,10,11 rows in the first column is writted in 2 lines... appreciate your help thank you
# 4  
Old 04-08-2012
How about this ?

Code:
 
#!/usr/bin/perl
$col1_limit=15;
$col2_limit=30;
$j=0;
while (<DATA>) {
        chomp;
        ($title,$desc)=split;
        if (length($title) <=15) { printf "%-${col1_limit}s | %-${col2_limit}s\n",$title,$desc;next}
        for($i=1;$i<=((length($title))/$col1_limit);$i++){
                printf "%-${col1_limit}s | %-${col2_limit}s\n",substr($title,$j,$col1_limit),$desc if ($i==1);
                printf "%-${col1_limit}s\n",substr($title,$j,$col1_limit);
                $j+=$col1_limit;
        }
        if (length($title) > $j) {printf "%-${col1_limit}s\n",substr($title,$j);}
        $j=0;

}
__DATA__
value1                                                            Updated this row
value1                                                            Updated this row also
value1                                                            Updated again
value1                                                            Changed table contents
value-value-value-value-value2                                  added few lines of code
value-value-value-value-value2---                                  added another few lines using perl
ABCDEFGH                                                updated code to add few lines
TESTING                                              added new testing procedure
TESTING AGAIN                                                  Updated General info
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                                      Updated information
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                                      Updated home address

This User Gave Thanks to pravin27 For This Post:
smarty86
# 5  
Old 04-08-2012
Thanks buddy working as expected... thanks again.. u guys are very helpful Smilie
# 6  
Old 04-19-2012
hi praveen and others..

whatever u told above was ok but now the problem is i need to check only in 1st column and only if the characters exceeds 36 then it should go to next line in the same column... and in 2nd column the seperator(|) should come just infront of the 2nd line.. pls help..
Code:
ABCDE FGHI, JKLMNOP, ABCDEFGHa nabsd 
AND DONE                                                   | Added for testing

---------- Post updated 04-18-12 at 07:13 PM ---------- Previous update was 04-17-12 at 11:21 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by smarty86
hi praveen and others..

whatever u told above was ok but now the problem is i need to check only in 1st column and only if the characters exceeds 36 then it should go to next line in the same column... and in 2nd column the seperator(|) should come just infront of the 2nd line.. pls help..
Code:
ABCDE FGHI, JKLMNOP, ABCDEFGHa nabsd 
AND DONE                                                   | Added for testing


pls help me guys
# 7  
Old 04-19-2012
Did you solve it?

I think it is not the exact solution you are looking for, but perhaps it helps. I use a non built-in module, you will have to install it using CPAN or similar tool. Also adjust column width to your needs, I used 10 characters for the example.
Code:
$ cat script.pl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Text::ASCIITable;

my @lines;
my @header = qw( col1 col2 );

while ( <DATA> ) {
        chomp;
        my @f = map { s/\s+\Z//; $_ } split /\|/;
        push @lines, [ @f ];
}

my $t = Text::ASCIITable->new;
$t->setCols( @header );

$t->setColWidth( $header[0], 10 );
for ( @lines ) {
        $_->[0] =~ s/(.{10})(?=\S)/$1\n/g;
        my $num_lines = $_->[0] =~ tr/\n/\n/;
        for my $i ( 1 .. $num_lines ) {
                $_->[1] =~ s/^/\n/;
        }
        $t->addRow( $_ );
}

print $t;

__DATA__
value1                                                    | Updated this row
value1                                                    | Updated this row also
value1                                                    | Updated again
value1                                                    | Changed table contents
value-value-value-value-value2                            | added few lines of code
value-value-value-value-value2                            | added another few lines using perl
ABCDEFGH                                                  | updated code to add few lines
TESTING                                                   | added new testing procedure
TESTING AGAIN                                             | Updated General info
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                          | Updated information
ABCDEFG TESTING, AGAIN AND AGAIN                          | Updated home address
$ perl script.pl
.--------------------------------------------------.
| col1       | col2                                |
+------------+-------------------------------------+
| value1     |  Updated this row                   |
| value1     |  Updated this row also              |
| value1     |  Updated again                      |
| value1     |  Changed table contents             |
| value-valu |                                     |
| e-value-va |                                     |
| lue-value2 |  added few lines of code            |
| value-valu |                                     |
| e-value-va |                                     |
| lue-value2 |  added another few lines using perl |
| ABCDEFGH   |  updated code to add few lines      |
| TESTING    |  added new testing procedure        |
| TESTING AG |                                     |
| AIN        |  Updated General info               |
| ABCDEFG TE |                                     |
| STING, AGA |                                     |
| IN AND AGA |                                     |
| IN         |  Updated information                |
| ABCDEFG TE |                                     |
| STING, AGA |                                     |
| IN AND AGA |                                     |
| IN         |  Updated home address               |
'------------+-------------------------------------'
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