[bash] How can I align the columns of tables in Bash?

I'd like to output a table format text. What I tried to do was echo the elements of an array with '\t', but it was misaligned.

My code

for((i=0;i<array_size;i++));
do
   echo stringarray[$i] $'\t' numberarray[$i] $'\t' anotherfieldarray[$i]
done;

My output

a very long string..........     112232432      anotherfield
a smaller string         123124343     anotherfield

Desired output

a very long string..........     112232432      anotherfield
a smaller string                 123124343      anotherfield

It's easier than you wonder.

If you are working with a separated by semicolon file and header too:

$ (head -n1 file.csv && sort file.csv | grep -v <header>) | column -s";" -t

If you are working with array (using tab as separator):

for((i=0;i<array_size;i++));
do

   echo stringarray[$i] $'\t' numberarray[$i] $'\t' anotherfieldarray[$i] >> tmp_file.csv

done;

cat file.csv | column -t

Use column command:

column -t -s' ' filename

To have the exact same output as you need, you need to format the file like that :

a very long string..........\t     112232432\t     anotherfield\n
a smaller string\t      123124343\t     anotherfield\n

And then using :

$ column -t -s $'\t' FILE
a very long string..........  112232432  anotherfield
a smaller string              123124343  anotherfield

awk solution that deals with stdin

Since column is not POSIX, maybe this is:

mycolumn() (
  file="${1:--}"
  if [ "$file" = - ]; then
    file="$(mktemp)"
    cat > "${file}"
  fi
  awk '
  FNR == 1 { if (NR == FNR) next }
  NR == FNR {
    for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
      l = length($i)
      if (w[i] < l)
        w[i] = l
    }
    next
  }
  {
    for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++)
      printf "%*s", w[i] + (i > 1 ? 1 : 0), $i
    print ""
  }
  ' "$file" "$file"
  if [ "$1" = - ]; then
    rm "$file"
  fi
)

Test:

printf '12 1234 1
12345678 1 123
1234 123456 123456
' > file

Test commands:

mycolumn file
mycolumn <file
mycolumn - <file

Output for all:

      12   1234      1
12345678      1    123
    1234 123456 123456

See also:

• Using awk to align columns in text file?
• AWK: go through the file twice, doing different tasks

Below code has been tested and does exactly what is requested in the original question.

Parameters: %30s Column of 30 char and text right align. %10d integer notation, %10s will also work. Added clarification included on code comments.

stringarray[0]="a very long string.........."
# 28Char (max length for this column)
numberarray[0]=1122324333
# 10digits (max length for this column)
anotherfield[0]="anotherfield"
# 12Char (max length for this column)
stringarray[1]="a smaller string....."
numberarray[1]=123124343
anotherfield[1]="anotherfield"

printf "%30s %10d %13s" "${stringarray[0]}" ${numberarray[0]} "${anotherfield[0]}"
printf "\n"
printf "%30s %10d %13s" "${stringarray[1]}" ${numberarray[1]} "${anotherfield[1]}"
# a var string with spaces has to be quoted
printf "\n Next line will fail \n"      
printf "%30s %10d %13s" ${stringarray[0]} ${numberarray[0]} "${anotherfield[0]}"



  a very long string.......... 1122324333  anotherfield
         a smaller string.....  123124343  anotherfield

Not sure where you were running this, but the code you posted would not produce the output you gave, at least not in the bash that I'm familiar with.

Try this instead:

stringarray=('test' 'some thing' 'very long long long string' 'blah')
numberarray=(1 22 7777 8888888888)
anotherfieldarray=('other' 'mixed' 456 'data')
array_size=4

for((i=0;i<array_size;i++))
do
    echo ${stringarray[$i]} $'\x1d' ${numberarray[$i]} $'\x1d' ${anotherfieldarray[$i]}
done | column -t -s$'\x1d'

Note that I'm using the group seperator character (1d) intead of tab, because if you are getting these arrays from a file, they might contain tabs.

function printTable()
{
    local -r delimiter="${1}"
    local -r data="$(removeEmptyLines "${2}")"

    if [[ "${delimiter}" != '' && "$(isEmptyString "${data}")" = 'false' ]]
    then
        local -r numberOfLines="$(wc -l <<< "${data}")"

        if [[ "${numberOfLines}" -gt '0' ]]
        then
            local table=''
            local i=1

            for ((i = 1; i <= "${numberOfLines}"; i = i + 1))
            do
                local line=''
                line="$(sed "${i}q;d" <<< "${data}")"

                local numberOfColumns='0'
                numberOfColumns="$(awk -F "${delimiter}" '{print NF}' <<< "${line}")"

                # Add Line Delimiter

                if [[ "${i}" -eq '1' ]]
                then
                    table="${table}$(printf '%s#+' "$(repeatString '#+' "${numberOfColumns}")")"
                fi

                # Add Header Or Body

                table="${table}\n"

                local j=1

                for ((j = 1; j <= "${numberOfColumns}"; j = j + 1))
                do
                    table="${table}$(printf '#| %s' "$(cut -d "${delimiter}" -f "${j}" <<< "${line}")")"
                done

                table="${table}#|\n"

                # Add Line Delimiter

                if [[ "${i}" -eq '1' ]] || [[ "${numberOfLines}" -gt '1' && "${i}" -eq "${numberOfLines}" ]]
                then
                    table="${table}$(printf '%s#+' "$(repeatString '#+' "${numberOfColumns}")")"
                fi
            done

            if [[ "$(isEmptyString "${table}")" = 'false' ]]
            then
                echo -e "${table}" | column -s '#' -t | awk '/^\+/{gsub(" ", "-", $0)}1'
            fi
        fi
    fi
}

function removeEmptyLines()
{
    local -r content="${1}"

    echo -e "${content}" | sed '/^\s*$/d'
}

function repeatString()
{
    local -r string="${1}"
    local -r numberToRepeat="${2}"

    if [[ "${string}" != '' && "${numberToRepeat}" =~ ^[1-9][0-9]*$ ]]
    then
        local -r result="$(printf "%${numberToRepeat}s")"
        echo -e "${result// /${string}}"
    fi
}

function isEmptyString()
{
    local -r string="${1}"

    if [[ "$(trimString "${string}")" = '' ]]
    then
        echo 'true' && return 0
    fi

    echo 'false' && return 1
}

function trimString()
{
    local -r string="${1}"

    sed 's,^[[:blank:]]*,,' <<< "${string}" | sed 's,[[:blank:]]*$,,'
}

SAMPLE RUNS

$ cat data-1.txt
HEADER 1,HEADER 2,HEADER 3

$ printTable ',' "$(cat data-1.txt)"
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| HEADER 1  | HEADER 2  | HEADER 3  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+

$ cat data-2.txt
HEADER 1,HEADER 2,HEADER 3
data 1,data 2,data 3

$ printTable ',' "$(cat data-2.txt)"
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| HEADER 1  | HEADER 2  | HEADER 3  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| data 1    | data 2    | data 3    |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+

$ cat data-3.txt
HEADER 1,HEADER 2,HEADER 3
data 1,data 2,data 3
data 4,data 5,data 6

$ printTable ',' "$(cat data-3.txt)"
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| HEADER 1  | HEADER 2  | HEADER 3  |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| data 1    | data 2    | data 3    |
| data 4    | data 5    | data 6    |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+

$ cat data-4.txt
HEADER
data

$ printTable ',' "$(cat data-4.txt)"
+---------+
| HEADER  |
+---------+
| data    |
+---------+

$ cat data-5.txt
HEADER

data 1

data 2

$ printTable ',' "$(cat data-5.txt)"
+---------+
| HEADER  |
+---------+
| data 1  |
| data 2  |
+---------+

REF LIB at: https://github.com/gdbtek/linux-cookbooks/blob/master/libraries/util.bash

Just in case someone wants to do that in PHP I posted a gist on Github

https://gist.github.com/redestructa/2a7691e7f3ae69ec5161220c99e2d1b3

simply call:

$output = $tablePrinter->printLinesIntoArray($items, ['title', 'chilProp2']);

you may need to adapt the code if you are using a php version older than 7.2

after that call echo or writeLine depending on your environment.