G'day hexcoder,

Here's a generic solution to your issue. 

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $multi_data_1 = [qw{
    123 456 789 0 _-=+
    qwe rty uio p {[]}
    asd fgh jkl :; '"
    zxc vbn m <>?/
}];
print_table(MULTI_COL => 'QWERTY Keyboard', $multi_data_1, 5);

my $step_data = [qw{Step2 0 4 Step3 4 4}];
print_table(STEP => 'TAB', $step_data, 3);

my $multi_data_2 = [
    'skip1', '', 'skip2', '', '',
    'skip2', '', '', 'skip1', '',
    'skip', 'rest',
];
print_table(MULTI_COL => 'Skipped Cells', $multi_data_2, 5);

sub print_table {
    my ($form, $title, $all_data, $cols) = @_;

format STEP =
.===================.
|@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< |
$title
.=======.===========.
|@<<<<<<|  @<</@>>  |~~
get_col_data($all_data, $cols)
.=======.===========.
.

format MULTI_COL =
/=======================================\
| @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
$title
|---------------------------------------|
| @<<<< | @<<<< | @<<<< | @<<<< | @<<<< |~~
get_col_data($all_data, $cols)
\=======================================/
.

    local $~ = $form;
    write;
    return;
}

sub get_col_data {
    my ($all_data, $cols) = @_;
    my @cols_data = splice @$all_data, 0, $cols;
    return @cols_data, ('') x ($cols - @cols_data);
}

[download]

Output:

/=======================================\
|            QWERTY Keyboard            |
|---------------------------------------|
| 123   | 456   | 789   | 0     | _-=+  |
| qwe   | rty   | uio   | p     | {[]}  |
| asd   | fgh   | jkl   | :;    | '"    |
| zxc   | vbn   | m     | <>?/  |       |
\=======================================/
.===================.
|TAB                |
.=======.===========.
|Step2  |  0  /  4  |
|Step3  |  4  /  4  |
.=======.===========.
/=======================================\
|             Skipped Cells             |
|---------------------------------------|
| skip1 |       | skip2 |       |       |
| skip2 |       |       | skip1 |       |
| skip  | rest  |       |       |       |
\=======================================/

[download]

Update: In get_col_data(), I changed three instances of @step_data to @cols_data. The output is unchanged. The original @step_data was from when I was initially testing with the OP's format (with Step2 & Step3). The change is in line with my opening statement that this was a "generic solution".

— Ken

In reply to Re: Avoid warnings while formatting with repeated format lines by kcott
in thread Avoid warnings while formatting with repeated format lines by hexcoder

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