How can i set column width in unix?
 

mY QUERY IS RELATED TO..

How can i set coloumn width in unix...

Like for ex. i am having a file, whose content is like

------------------------------
aba bba baba
abba baba baaa
addd ffff fffff
-----------------------------------
i want it to be like
-----------------------------------
aba bba baba
abba baba baaa
addd ffff fffff
------------------------------------
How can i set the coloumn width in unix... Please reply asap.
Thanks

Re: How can i set column width in unix?
 

Depends on the editor.

Re: How can i set column width in unix?
 

i am using vi editor,....and want to send the file genrated as a mail...and want it to be in proper format

Re: How can i set column width in unix?
 

There is no "columns" There are tab sizes, but those only apply to the current session (also saved in preferences but only for the current user), so that doesn't help as the next person/viewer/editor won't have the same settings.

You best bet is, if your good at regex, to use search and replace to add in spaces. Even better, is to modify whatever "writes" the data to do that. Anyway, for vi, here:

http://www.cs.fsu.edu/general/vimanual.html

Re: How can i set column width in unix?
 

Here's the solution..
awk -F"~" '{printf("%-15s%s~%s\n", $1,$2,$3)}' inputfile
ID1 Name1~Place1
ID2 Name2~Place2
ID3 Name3~Place3

Thanks guys for your help..

Re: How can i set column width in unix?
 

This may be late, but I wanted to get the "column" command into the fight!

$ column -t -s " " test.txt 

aba   bba   baba

abba  baba  baaa

addd  ffff  fffff

Hope this helps!
-G