thank s for the code. though the lines 1,2,3 aline well, there should not be a TAB in the beggining of line 0 and group of wordstext with spaces X should be alined from the line containing most of them (max TAB), for example (ex 0) for the input (in 0) 
    text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2                text with 
+spaces 3                text with spaces 4        line 0
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2            text with spaces 3
+            text with spaces 4                line 1
text with spaces 1            text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3
+        text with spaces 4    line 2
text with spaces 1                text with spaces 2                te
+xt with spaces 3    text with spaces 4            line 3

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There are 4 TAB ranges (3 TABs ranges between text with spaces (1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4) and 1 TABs range between text with spaces 4 and line X, X being 0,1,2,3) in each for the 4 lines. Here is a 4 * 4 array (ar 0) (TAB_range * line),that is, for each of the 4 lines, the 4 TAB ranges 
1 4 4 2
1 3 3 4
3 1 2 1
4 4 1 3

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the max is 4 for each of the columns the max number of TABs for each of the columns is 4 4 4 4 there should be 4 TABs between text with spaces 1 and text with spaces 2 , text with spaces 2 and text with spaces 3 text with spaces 3 and text with spaces 4 and text with spaces 4 and line X X being 0,1,2,3 and the output should be 
text with spaces 1                text with spaces 2                te
+xt with spaces 3                text with spaces 4                lin
+e 0
text with spaces 1                text with spaces 2                te
+xt with spaces 3                text with spaces 4                lin
+e 1
text with spaces 1                text with spaces 2                te
+xt with spaces 3                text with spaces 4                lin
+e 2
text with spaces 1                text with spaces 2                te
+xt with spaces 3                text with spaces 4                lin
+e 3

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the above example (ex 0) (in 0) is a bit unclear as all TAB ranges contain 4 TABs. In the following example (ex 1) (in 1) temp9.txt TAB ranges (max TAB) have a different number of TABs between group of wordstext with spaces X 
    text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2            text with spac
+es 3            text with spaces 4        line 0
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2            text with spaces 3
+                    text with spaces 4            line 1
text with spaces 1        text with spaces 2                text with 
+spaces 3        text with spaces 4    line 2
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3    text
+ with spaces 4        line 3

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As in above example (ex 0), there are 4 TAB ranges (3 TABs ranges between text with spaces (1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4) and 1 TABs range between text with spaces 4 and line X, X being 0,1,2,3) in each for the 4 lines. Here is a 4 * 4 array (ar 1) (TAB_range * line),that is, for each of the 4 lines, the 4 TAB ranges 
1 3 3 2
1 3 5 3
2 4 2 1
1 1 1 2

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the max number of TABs for each of the columns is 2 4 5 3 as opposed to 4 4 4 4 for the above array (ar 0) and thus output should be 
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3    text
+ with spaces 4    line 0
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3    text
+ with spaces 4    line 1
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3    text
+ with spaces 4    line 2
text with spaces 1    text with spaces 2    text with spaces 3    text
+ with spaces 4    line 3

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I have printed the begin/end of each TAB range using print  $-[0], ' ', $+[0], ' '; line 20 
0 1 19 20 38 41 59 62 80 82
18 19 37 40 58 63 81 84
18 20 38 42 60 62 80 81
18 19 37 38 56 57 75 77

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I have printed the maximum column numbers for both TAB bebin and end for each of the TAB ranges between group of wordstext with spaces X 
# printing max number of TABs for each of the columns begin ($max_b) a
+nd end ($max_e)
print "max begin\t: " ;
for ($x=0;$x<=$nbr_tab;$x++) {
    print $max_b[$x], ' ';
}
print "\nmax end\t\t: ";
for ($x=0;$x<=$nbr_tab;$x++) {
    print $max_e[$x], ' ';
}

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for debugging only and outputs 
max begin    : 18 38 60 81 80  
max end        : 20 42 63 84 82

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here text with spaces 1,2,3,4 for all 4 lines 0,1,2,3 all have the same width,that is,18, but in real life text with spaces have variable length as in here lines 2,3,4 taken from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55038/phrases (lak of insperation after line 1) 
Bob, the rabbit jump above the fence    Jack, the cat hid under the po
+rch of the red house        Rex, the dog ran after Jack    the birds 
+fly        When the world is reduced to a single dark wood for our tw
+o pairs of dazzled eyes    to a musical house for our clear understan
+ding        then I shall find you
When we are very strong        who draws back?        very happy      
+  who collapses from ridicule    When we are very bad        what can
+ they do to us.
The taste of ashes in the air    the smell of wood sweating in the hea
+rth        steeped flowers                the devastation of paths   
+     drizzle over the canals in the fields        why not already pla
+ythings and incense?
Arousing a pleasant taste of Chinese ink    a black powder gently rain
+s on my night    I lower the jets of the chandelier        throw myse
+lf on the bed        and turning toward thedark        I see you     
+   O my daughters and queens!

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should output as follows temp11.txt formatted using Ubuntu Mousepad 
Bob, the rabbit jump above the fence        Jack, the cat hid under th
+e porch of the red house    Rex, the dog ran after Jack        the bi
+rds fly            When the world is reduced to a single dark wood fo
+r our two pairs of dazzled eyes    to a musical house for our clear u
+nderstanding    then I shall find you
When we are very strong                who draws back?                
+        very happy                who collapses from ridicule    When
+ we are very bad                                    what can they do 
+to us.
The taste of ashes in the air            the smell of wood sweating in
+ the hearth        steeped flowers                the devastation of 
+paths    drizzle over the canals in the fields                       
+     why not already playthings and incense?
Arousing a pleasant taste of Chinese ink    a black powder gently rain
+s on my night            I lower the jets of the chandelier    throw 
+myself on the bed        and turning toward thedark                  
+              I see you                    O my daughters and queens!

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I would like TABs to aline at the rightmost/maximum column number (between $max_b[] and $max_e[]) for each TAB ranges between group of wordstext with spaces X remember arrays @max_b and @max_e contain the beginning ending column numbers of TABs found using 
$max_b[$max_tab] = $-[0] if $max_b[$max_tab] < $-[0] ;
$max_e[$max_tab] = $+[0] if $max_e[$max_tab] < $+[0] ;

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and insert missing TABs (to aline with the longest line) using 
print $out_fh $_ =~ y/\t/\t/rs;

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I have tried 
print $out_fh $_ =~ y/\t/\t{3}/rs;

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just to test the use of {} for making the output 3 tabs wide but got the same output. I have also tried 
print $out_fh $_ =~ tr/\t/\t/rs;

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I have read https://perldoc.perl.org/perlre on perl regex but can t figure out where to insert $max_b[$tab_index] and $max_e[$tab_index] within y/\t/\t/rs or tr/\t/\t/rs
I have changed the following lines in the code 
my $infile = 'pm_11140114_tab_align_even.dat';
my $outfile = 'pm_11140114_tab_align_even.out';

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for 
my $infile =  $ARGV[0];
my $outfile =  $ARGV[1];

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because I need to read the input and output filenames from command line arguement $ARGV[0] $ARGV[1] and added 
close $in_fh;
close $out_fh;

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I guess you forgot to close files 
my ($max_tab,$nbr_tab,$valid_line,@max_b,@max_e);

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for my array of TABs I also added 
while(<$in_fh>) { ... }

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at the begginning to read the file before writing to the output file in the second 
while(<$in_fh>) { ... }

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in order to get the positions of the begin/end of each TAB range inside $max_b and $max_e arrays before repositioning the file pointer at the beginning using 
seek $in_fh,0,0;

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I have commented 
# use 5.014;
# use warnings;
# use autodie;

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because I have useless warnings 
Parentheses missing around "my" list at 02-00.pl line 9.
Global symbol "$nbr_tab" requires explicit package name (did you forge
+t to declare "my $nbr_tab"?) at 02-00.pl line 9.
Global symbol "$valid_line" requires explicit package name (did you fo
+rget to declare "my $valid_line"?) at 02-00.pl line 9.
Global symbol "$valid_line" requires explicit package name (did you fo
+rget to declare "my $valid_line"?) at 02-00.pl line 13.
Global symbol "@max" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
+ declare "my @max"?) at 02-00.pl line 17.
Global symbol "@max" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
+ declare "my @max"?) at 02-00.pl line 17.
Global symbol "$nbr_tab" requires explicit package name (did you forge
+t to declare "my $nbr_tab"?) at 02-00.pl line 20.
Global symbol "$nbr_tab" requires explicit package name (did you forge
+t to declare "my $nbr_tab"?) at 02-00.pl line 20.
Execution of 02-00.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

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I don t know where to put ($max_e[]) , rightmost/maximum column number within 
print $out_fh $_ =~ y/\t/\t/rs;

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I am sorry for this but I m quite new to perl and regex and its quite confusing thank s in advance here is the re-written code 
# use 5.014;
# use warnings;
# use autodie;

$infile =  $ARGV[0];
$outfile =  $ARGV[1];

my ($max_tab,$nbr_tab,$valid_line,@max_b,@max_e);

open my $in_fh, '<', $infile;
open my $out_fh, '>', $outfile;

while(<$in_fh>) {
# print "$_\n";
    if (/[a-zA-Z0-9]/) {
        $valid_line++;
        $max_tab = 0;
        while (/\t+/g) {
#            print  $-[0], ' ', $+[0], ' ';
            $max_b[$max_tab] = $-[0] if $max_b[$max_tab] < $-[0] ;
            $max_e[$max_tab] = $+[0] if $max_e[$max_tab] < $+[0] ;

            print $max_b[$max_tab], ' ', $max_e[$max_tab], ' ', $max_t
+ab, ' ';
            $max_tab++; 
        }
#        print "\n";
        $nbr_tab = $max_tab if $nbr_tab < $max_tab;
    }
}


# printing max number of TABs for each of the columns begin ($max_b) a
+nd end ($max_e) DEBUG
print "max begin\t: " ;
for ($x=0;$x<=$nbr_tab;$x++) {
    print $max_b[$x], ' ';
}
print "\nmax end\t\t: ";
for ($x=0;$x<=$nbr_tab;$x++) {
    print $max_e[$x], ' ';
}

seek $in_fh,0,0;

    while (<$in_fh>) {
        print $out_fh $_ =~ y/\t/\t/rs;
    }
close $in_fh;
close $out_fh;

[download]

In reply to Re^2: misalined TABs using substr,LAST_MATCH_START/END,regex by perl_boy
in thread misalined TABs using substr,LAST_MATCH_START/END,regex by perl_boy

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