Aligning columns by a character

shmuck · 11-16-2006, 10:03 PM

Hey guys

I'm trying to lineup my columns by the 35th character, which will be a decimal.

I don't think printf will help me, my partner in crime thinks he can do it in a loop with some funky code, I think there must be an easier solution.

Here's what we're trying to get.

35.0
1985.1
2.36

So the decimals are all lined up which is the 35th character in each line.

Any ideas?

asquante · 11-17-2006, 03:33 AM

I don't understand exactly what you're trying to do.
Can you explain it more clear?
Are you trying to start the next column from 35th character or?

mARGO

bigearsbilly · 11-17-2006, 03:50 AM

try man cut

examples would be nice.
a loop with funky code won't be needed.

shmuck · 11-17-2006, 08:40 AM

Yeah I'm trying to align 3 columns at the 35th character.

I tried to show it on here but it didn't come through.

Should sort of look like this, hopefully it works this time.

.................................3.7
................................78.9
...............................657.10

See how the decimals are lined up? Thats what I'm trying to do. Fortunately I have a few weeks to figure it out.

I'll check out the cut command and see if that helps me.

sundialsvcs · 11-17-2006, 09:29 AM

Let me give a clue, instead of the answer, in case this is homework...

What is the position of the decimal-point character in the string?

Figure out how many spaces to emit before the string.

Remember to consider that the string might begin with some spaces of its own...

----
Another strategy:

It's two substrings, now isn't it? One to the left of the decimal; the other to the right....

matthewg42 · 11-17-2006, 10:14 AM

What's wrong with printf?

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
my @numbers = (3.7, 79.9, 657.1);
foreach my $n (@numbers) {
    printf("%34s%s\n", "", $n);
}

Quigi · 11-17-2006, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shmuck

.................................3.7
................................78.9
...............................657.10

See how the decimals are lined up?

No, we don't see it, because you forgot the [code] markup again. BTW, this example is worse than the first because in 657.10 you're printing a not significant 0.

Let's assume you forgot the zeros in 3.70 and 78.90.
In that case, you want printf format "%f37.2" -- 34 digits, the period, and 2 digits, for a total of 37.

If you're using Perl, you may want to consider format --

perldoc

Quote:

Originally Posted by perlform

you may also use "#" characters (with an optional ".") to specify a numeric field. This way you can line up the decimal points.