The perlpack pod file, in the 5.8 standard distribution offers an interesting alternative, specifically fur such aligned data.

The approach is to use ($field,$value) = unpack("A[] A*",$line) for each of the lines. Inside the brackets place the running length of the spaces, and the text in the field, and the A packing template automatically strips the trailing spaces. It may be a bit more efficient than the above mentioned regexp, but i make note of mainly just because TMTOWTDI.

-nuffin
zz zZ Z Z #!perl