Format data to columns addind spaces

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi all,

I have a problem to format data from different database queries into one look. The input data are as follows, every line has the same number of values but a different number of characters:

adata, bdata,     cdata,    ddata
fffdata,  gdata,      hdata,    idata
jdata,    kdata,   ldata,   mdaata

What I want is a formatted output with the same number of characters in each line:

adata,   bdata, cdata, ddata
fffdata, gdata, hdata, idata
jdata,   kdata, ldata, mdaata

I�m useing Redhat-Linux and ksh.

Thanks for your support!

2

What is the difference in your input and output ? Both looks same. Please put your input and output in tags.

3

Hi dj,

thanks for your remark. I added the tags. As you probably see now the data of the lines start in the same column.

4

Ok so you need formating of the output... there are varios ways
1.

echo "$VAR1  ,    $VAR2   ,    $VAR 3"

awk  { printf("%s,    %s,    %s",$1,$2,$3 ) }

  1. Using Perl FORMAT .. see this
    Perl format Primer (1/2)

echo -e "$VAR1,\t$VAR2,\t$VAR 3"
5

Try:
Assuming the width is 10 characters.

awk '{ printf "%-10s%-10s%-10s%-10s\n",$1,$2,$3,$4 }'  filename
6

bash

#!/bin/bash
while IFS="," read -r a b c d
do    
    printf "%-10s%-10s%-10s%-10s\n" $a,$b,$c,$d   
done <"file"
7

@ all,

thanks a lot for your support, I checked the last post with the loop, it works perfect!