Sure. Something like this

printf "%-33s %d\n", $word, $seen{$word};
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The 33 sets the width of the field, and the minus sign left-aligns the content in it.

almut's right.

You can get a slight improvement by keeping track of your longest word as you count them, though, and then using printf's "*" modifier to read the field width from that variable.

printf "%-*s %d\n", $maxLen, $word, $seen{$word};
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I'd put a width specifier on the %d so the numbers line up nicely as well, but that's just my preference:

printf "%-*s %4d\n", $maxLen, $word, $seen{$word};
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Mike

Thank you good Sir!

peokai:

You can answer questions like this simply by reading the documentation. The perldoc command makes it pretty easy to find information on standard perl functions using the command "perldoc -f functionName". For example, the documentation on printf would have pointed you to the answer:

[06:28]$ perldoc -f printf

       printf FILEHANDLE FORMAT, LIST
       printf FORMAT, LIST
               Equivalent to "print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)",
+ except
               that "$\" (the output record separator) is not appended
+.  The
               first argument of the list will be interpreted as the "
+printf"
               format. See "sprintf" for an explanation of the format
               argument.  If "use locale" is in effect, and POSIX::set
+locale()
               has been called, the character used for the decimal sep
+arator
               in formatted floating point numbers is affected by the
               LC_NUMERIC locale.  See perllocale and POSIX.

               Don’t fall into the trap of using a "printf" when a sim
+ple
               "print" would do.  The "print" is more efficient and le
+ss error
               prone.

[06:28]$ perldoc -f sprintf

       sprintf FORMAT, LIST
               Returns a string formatted by the usual "printf" conven
+tions of
               the C library function "sprintf".  See below for more d
+etails
               and see sprintf(3) or printf(3) on your system for an
               explanation of the general principles.

               For example:

                       # Format number with up to 8 leading zeroes
                       $result = sprintf("%08d", $number);

   <<<quite a bit of text snipped out>>>

               (minimum) width
                   Arguments are usually formatted to be only as wide 
+as
                   required to display the given value. You can overri
+de the
                   width by putting a number here, or get the width fr
+om the
                   next argument (with "*") or from a specified argume
+nt (with
                   e.g. "*2$"):

                     printf '<%s>', "a";       # prints "<a>"
                     printf '<%6s>', "a";      # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%*s>', 6, "a";   # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%*2$s>', "a", 6; # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%2s>', "long";   # prints "<long>" (does
+ not truncate)

                   If a field width obtained through "*" is negative, 
+it has
                   the same effect as the "&#8722;" flag: left-justifi
+cation.
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An added benefit of reading the documentation would be that you'd learn quite a bit more about printf/sprintf, which couldn't hurt. If you want to look over all the standard functions (which I do every now and then) you can use "perldoc perlfunc". Be sure to explore all the documentation to find out what's out there so you can answer things yourself.

...roboticus

Also, Using (s)printf() in Tutorials

 printf( "%5d  %s\n", $seen{$word}, $word );
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If all you want is columns of output like that, read the perlform page and learn about formats. format an old and rigid interface, but it might be a good match for what you want.