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

Depends on the editor.

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

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

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..

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


Hope this helps!
-G