How to align tabbed strings?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,

I've problem with aligning tabbed strings. My code looks something like this:

my $output = qq~Username\tLevel\tCreated\n~;

foreach my $row (@rows) {
    $output .= qq~$row->[0]\t$row->[1]\t$row->[2]\n~;
}
[download]

And I get something like this:

Username    Level    Created
johnny            2    12-09-2008
rob    2    25-10-2008
[download]

Is there a way to align the value of each row correctly under each heading?

Thanks in advance :)

Comment on How to align tabbed strings? Select or Download Code

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Re: How to align tabbed strings? by WizardOfUz (Friar) on Jan 02, 2010 at 14:54 UTC
You could use Text::Table or Text::SimpleTable for example.	[reply]
Re^2: How to align tabbed strings? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 02, 2010 at 15:54 UTC
Thank you so much, WizardOfUz! I chose Text::Table, it works beautifully :)	[reply]
Re: How to align tabbed strings? by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on Jan 02, 2010 at 16:05 UTC
As WizardOfUz has said, Text::Table will do as you want (and a whole lot more). Perhaps a simpler solution using printf (the formatting codes are described in sprintf) will do: `my @rows = ( [qw/johnny 2 12-09-2008/], [qw/rob 2 25-10-2008/], ); my $format = "%-8s %-5s %-8s\n"; printf $format, qw/Username Level Created/; printf $format, @$_ for @rows; __END__ Username Level Created johnny 2 12-09-2008 rob 2 25-10-2008` [download] Unless I state otherwise, all my code runs with strict and warnings	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How to align tabbed strings? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 02, 2010 at 17:49 UTC
Wonderful, thank you so much! Instead of printing, is it possible to save the formatted string into a variable (scalar), so that you can send it off (for instance) as a message in email (via sendmail)?	[reply]
Re^3: How to align tabbed strings? by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on Jan 02, 2010 at 17:54 UTC
That's what sprintf does! `my $format = "%-8s %-5s %-8s\n"; my $output = sprintf $format, qw/Username Level Created/; $output .= sprintf $format, @$_ for @rows;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to align tabbed strings? by johngg (Canon) on Jan 02, 2010 at 16:24 UTC
It is good that WizardOfUz's suggestion of Text::Table is working well for you. It is also worth being familiar with printf for application to simple problems. `$ perl -e ' > $format = qq{%-10s%-7s%-12s\n}; > @headings = qw{ Username Level Created }; > printf $format, @headings; > @rows = ( > [ qw{ johnny 2 12-09-2008 } ], > [ qw{ rob 2 25-10-2008 } ], > ); > printf $format, @$_ for @rows;' Username Level Created johnny 2 12-09-2008 rob 2 25-10-2008 $` [download] I hope this is useful. Cheers, JohnGG Update: Looks like FunkyMonk beat me to it, must learn to type faster :-/	[reply] [d/l]