I think Text::Table is a good start. You "write" to the table one row at a time and it figures out the correct widths for you when you're done. I had actually written my own before finding this one. Mine is a bit smarter so maybe I'll submit it sometime, but I'm hesitant to add to an already crowded field.

The Perl Cookbook also has a few examples that would help you when you have text layout issues that you figure someone else has solved before.

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