tab string variables nicely

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I'm using korn shell for my shell script

I'm reading a file and get the data I want out and append it to a variable
directly, it shows like this

AutoMicroReport_53767.txt BANI BHUM (570N)  20080520 17:54 WAN HAI 306 078 ITH 1 1 HKHKG 20 GP M S06 7 6 1 0 TCYONG
AutoMicroReport_53767.txt BANI BHUM (570N)  20080520 17:54 BANGA BORTI 0895N IGH 5 5 BDCGP 20 GP X S06 18 5 5 0 TCYONG

however, the format is not so nice, instead i want it to be like this

AutoMicroReport_53767.txt BANI BHUM (570N)  20080520 17:54 WAN HAI 306   078 ITH 1 1 HKHKG 20 GP M S06 7 6 1 0 TCYONG
AutoMicroReport_53767.txt BANI BHUM (570N)  20080520 17:54 BANGA BORTI 0895N IGH 5 5 BDCGP 20 GP X S06 18 5 5 0 TCYONG

coloured fields are by together, the rest are just tab by the word/number itself

2

Look at the printf command.

3

so instead of echo, i should do a printf instead?