Shell Programming and Scripting

So say you have something like:

Code:

col1        col2        col3
.           .           .
.           .           .

Say using bash you want the columns to always have exactly the same width (including spaces). If there are text overruns, the overruns carry over to the next line.

I'm using something like:

Code:

printf "%s\t%-59s(%s)\n", col1, col2, col3

It so happens col1 text is always the same length. col2 varies big time, but I'd like to keep the column width at 59 chars. col3 begins at the end of col2.

If col2 is greater than 59 chars, I want it to continue over to the next line, directly beneath it.

Best way to go about this? Thanks!

You can use an if condition to check if length of col2 is greater than 59 chars and print accordingly:-

Code:

if [ ${#col2} -gt 59 ]
then
      # print next line
else
      # print same line
fi