How can I format the output of a bash command in neat columns

Question

I have a function which outputs many rows of information which I want to format in columns   The problem is that the width of any particular  cell   if I may use that term  of data is variable  so piping it to something like awk does not give me what I want     The function is  keys   not that it matters  and I m trying something like this     keys   awk    print  1  t t   2      but the output  a snippet of it  that is  looks like this    option-y       yank-pop  option-z       execute-last-named-cmd  option-        vi-goto-column  option-         bash complete-word  option-control-        backward-kill-word  control-       undo  control-       backward-delete-char   How can I force things to stay in neat columns   Is this possible with awk  or do I need to use something else

User · Answer

While awk s printf can be used  you may want to look into pr or  on BSDish systems  rs for formatting

User · Answer

Since AIX doesn t have a  column  command  I created the simplistic script below  It would be even shorter without the doc  amp  input edits           usr bin perl         column pl  convert STDIN to multiple columns on STDOUT         Usage  column pl column-width number-of-columns  file       width   shift    width ne     or die  must give column-width and number-of-columns n    columns   shift    columns ne     or die  must give number-of-columns n     x    width     s   0-9   g    x eq  width  or die  invalid column-width   width n     x    columns     s   0-9   g    x eq  columns  or die  invalid number-of-columns   columns n     w    width   -1   c    columns  while   lt  gt             chomp          if    c--  gt  1                     printf     w s                       next                     c    columns          printf     w s n         print   n

User · Answer

Try  xargs -n2  printf   -20s s n    or even  xargs printf   -20s s n    if input is not very large

User · Answer

Found this by searching for  linux output formatted columns    http   www unix com shell-programming-scripting 117543-formatting-output-columns html  For your needs  it s like   awk    printf   -20s  -40s n    1   2

User · Answer

If your output is delimited by tabs a quick solution would be to use the tabs command to  adjust the size of your tabs   tabs 20 keys   awk    print  1  t t   2

User · Answer

column 1  is your friend     column -t  lt  lt  lt    option-y       yank-pop  gt   option-z       execute-last-named-cmd  gt   option-        vi-goto-column  gt   option-         bash complete-word  gt   option-control-        backward-kill-word  gt   control-       undo  gt   control-       backward-delete-char  gt     option-y           yank-pop  option-z           execute-last-named-cmd  option-            vi-goto-column  option-             bash complete-word  option-control-    backward-kill-word  control-           undo  control-           backward-delete-char

[bash] How can I format the output of a bash command in neat columns

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