Table or structured output to stdout

[jerehart]

Hey I want to output some text from a script where everything lines up regardless of the output string size. I am looking for something like a setw(#spaces) type thing. any ideas?

 

[tsdragon]

You can use printf formatting, perl's format statements for reporting, or you can pad your strings. Here's a handy couple of routines for left and right padding strings:

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# LPad
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Pads a string on the left end to a specified length with a specified
# character and returns the result.  Default pad char is space.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

sub LPad {

local($str, $len, $chr) = @_;

$chr = " " unless (defined($chr));
	
return substr(($chr x $len) . $str, -1 * $len, $len);

} # LPad

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# RPad
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Pads a string on the right end to a specified length with a specified
# character and returns the result.  Default pad char is space.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

sub RPad {

local($str, $len, $chr) = @_;

$chr = " " unless (defined($chr));
	
return substr($str . ($chr x $len), 0, $len);

} # RPad
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

Tracy Dryden
tracy@bydisn.com

http://www.bydisn.com

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.