[SOLVED] Formatting output of a file

lLinux_Newbiel · 01-28-2012, 03:59 AM

Hi all,

i'm currently new to shell script and require some help

i need to format the output of a file in a certain way.Basically to align my output.

Example
info1......info2.......info3........info4
info........info.........info..........info
P.S the . indicates whitespaces

is it possible by sed or awk?
Or there is equivalent of ios_base width c++ that can be used?

Thanks in advance

crts · 01-28-2012, 04:16 AM

Welcome to LQ,

awk can do what you want. Have a look at those links:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/man...ontrol-Letters
http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/man...rmat-Modifiers

lLinux_Newbiel · 01-28-2012, 04:59 AM

Thanks for the links and the man pages =)
I'll work on it

Marked as solved =)

Cedrik · 01-28-2012, 05:09 AM

If your shell is bash, it has a printf built-in function

Just type:

Code:

help printf
man 1 printf
man 3 printf

in a terminal for help

theNbomr · 01-29-2012, 12:56 PM

First, do as Cedrik suggests, and read the man pages.
If your input data file is uniformly formatted with 4 fields per line, whitespace delimited:

Code:

#! /bin/bash

while read field1 field2 field3 field4; do
    printf "%-12s%-12s%-12s%-12s\n" $field1 $field2 $field3 $field4
done < yourInputDataFile

--- rod.

David the H. · 01-31-2012, 08:12 AM

Please use [code][/code] tags around your code and data, to preserve formatting and to improve readability. Please do not use quote tags, colors, or other fancy formatting.

Anyway, also take a look at the column command.