Calling an array inside awk to create fixed-widths columns table

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I would like to extract data from a file and organize it in a big fixed-widths table. I can expect that this table will have multiple columns, let's say 30 columns. If I create this table using the traditional awk command line, then I will need to write a very long awk command line, something similar to the following:

awk 'printf "%-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5sn", $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10,$11,$12,$13,$14,$15,$16,$17,$18,$19,$20,$21,$22,$23,$24,$25,$26,$27,$28,$29,$30'

Is there away to make this linear shorter? For example, I am thinking of implementing an array inside the previous long command. This array will tell awk what are the numbers and the widths of the columns that I would like to create, instead of defining each column separately, something like:

awk 'BEGIN for i in 1..30; do echo %-5sn print i

How can I implement that correctly inside awk to create multiple fixed-widths columns?

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

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up vote
3
down vote

favorite

awk 'printf "%-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5sn", $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10,$11,$12,$13,$14,$15,$16,$17,$18,$19,$20,$21,$22,$23,$24,$25,$26,$27,$28,$29,$30'

awk 'BEGIN for i in 1..30; do echo %-5sn print i

How can I implement that correctly inside awk to create multiple fixed-widths columns?

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
3
down vote

favorite

awk 'printf "%-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5sn", $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10,$11,$12,$13,$14,$15,$16,$17,$18,$19,$20,$21,$22,$23,$24,$25,$26,$27,$28,$29,$30'

awk 'BEGIN for i in 1..30; do echo %-5sn print i

How can I implement that correctly inside awk to create multiple fixed-widths columns?

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

awk 'printf "%-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5s %-5sn", $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10,$11,$12,$13,$14,$15,$16,$17,$18,$19,$20,$21,$22,$23,$24,$25,$26,$27,$28,$29,$30'

awk 'BEGIN for i in 1..30; do echo %-5sn print i

How can I implement that correctly inside awk to create multiple fixed-widths columns?

awk columns

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

edited 1 hour ago

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

asked 2 hours ago

Goro

2,50141849

add a commentÂ |Â

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

up vote
6
down vote

accepted

You can do the print, itself, inside a loop, one field at a time.

awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '

Note the printing of the newline is needed after the loop to prevent multiple lines all merging into one.

e.g

echo a b c 32 87 x5 | awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '
a b c 32 87 x5

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

Another option is using awk's system() function and call printf:

awk ' system("printf %-5s " $0); print "" ' infile
a b c 32 87 x5

This behaves like this that we pass the whole line to the shell printf command as like unquoted string, so that %-5s will apply for every arguments seen.

compare:

printf '%-5s' '1 2 3'
1 2 3

with

printf '%-5s' 1 2 3
1 2 3

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

You could (but I do not recomend this) build some vars in steps (an example in bash):

$ printf -v l '%s ' 1..30 # list of numbers to use
$ printf -v a '%.0s%%-5s ' $l # make a string of repeated "%-5s"
$ printf -v b ',$%s' $l # make string of field numbers as "$1,$2.."
$ awk -va="$a" 'printf a "n"'"$b"'' infile4

But you could also do it all inside awk:

$ awk 'split($0,a); for(i in a)printf "%-5s", $i; print ""' infile

The split in awk will use the same regex in FS as used to split the line into fields and place each value in the array a.

The for will (auto) loop over all fields.

The printf will print all fields with the same format.

And, the final print will place a newline at the end of the line.

This is more flexible as it will work for any amount of fields, even lines with varying number of fields. And is complete inside only one language (easier to understand and maintain).

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
3 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

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3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

up vote
6
down vote

accepted

You can do the print, itself, inside a loop, one field at a time.

awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '

Note the printing of the newline is needed after the loop to prevent multiple lines all merging into one.

e.g

echo a b c 32 87 x5 | awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '
a b c 32 87 x5

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
6
down vote

accepted

You can do the print, itself, inside a loop, one field at a time.

awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '

Note the printing of the newline is needed after the loop to prevent multiple lines all merging into one.

e.g

echo a b c 32 87 x5 | awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '
a b c 32 87 x5

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
6
down vote

accepted

You can do the print, itself, inside a loop, one field at a time.

awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '

Note the printing of the newline is needed after the loop to prevent multiple lines all merging into one.

e.g

echo a b c 32 87 x5 | awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '
a b c 32 87 x5

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

You can do the print, itself, inside a loop, one field at a time.

awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '

Note the printing of the newline is needed after the loop to prevent multiple lines all merging into one.

e.g

echo a b c 32 87 x5 | awk 'for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf "%-5s",$i ; printf("n"); '
a b c 32 87 x5

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

answered 1 hour ago

Stephen Harris

21.5k23973

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

Another option is using awk's system() function and call printf:

awk ' system("printf %-5s " $0); print "" ' infile
a b c 32 87 x5

This behaves like this that we pass the whole line to the shell printf command as like unquoted string, so that %-5s will apply for every arguments seen.

compare:

printf '%-5s' '1 2 3'
1 2 3

with

printf '%-5s' 1 2 3
1 2 3

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

Another option is using awk's system() function and call printf:

awk ' system("printf %-5s " $0); print "" ' infile
a b c 32 87 x5

This behaves like this that we pass the whole line to the shell printf command as like unquoted string, so that %-5s will apply for every arguments seen.

compare:

printf '%-5s' '1 2 3'
1 2 3

with

printf '%-5s' 1 2 3
1 2 3

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

Another option is using awk's system() function and call printf:

awk ' system("printf %-5s " $0); print "" ' infile
a b c 32 87 x5

This behaves like this that we pass the whole line to the shell printf command as like unquoted string, so that %-5s will apply for every arguments seen.

compare:

printf '%-5s' '1 2 3'
1 2 3

with

printf '%-5s' 1 2 3
1 2 3

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

Another option is using awk's system() function and call printf:

awk ' system("printf %-5s " $0); print "" ' infile
a b c 32 87 x5

This behaves like this that we pass the whole line to the shell printf command as like unquoted string, so that %-5s will apply for every arguments seen.

compare:

printf '%-5s' '1 2 3'
1 2 3

with

printf '%-5s' 1 2 3
1 2 3

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

edited 8 mins ago

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

answered 16 mins ago

ÃŽÂ±Ã’Â“sÃÂ½ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ·

15.7k92563

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

add a commentÂ |Â

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
2 mins ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

Note that there is the risk that a field will get expanded if it is a glob (like *).
â€“Â Isaac
1 min ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

You could (but I do not recomend this) build some vars in steps (an example in bash):

$ printf -v l '%s ' 1..30 # list of numbers to use
$ printf -v a '%.0s%%-5s ' $l # make a string of repeated "%-5s"
$ printf -v b ',$%s' $l # make string of field numbers as "$1,$2.."
$ awk -va="$a" 'printf a "n"'"$b"'' infile4

But you could also do it all inside awk:

$ awk 'split($0,a); for(i in a)printf "%-5s", $i; print ""' infile

The split in awk will use the same regex in FS as used to split the line into fields and place each value in the array a.

The for will (auto) loop over all fields.

The printf will print all fields with the same format.

And, the final print will place a newline at the end of the line.

This is more flexible as it will work for any amount of fields, even lines with varying number of fields. And is complete inside only one language (easier to understand and maintain).

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
3 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

You could (but I do not recomend this) build some vars in steps (an example in bash):

$ printf -v l '%s ' 1..30 # list of numbers to use
$ printf -v a '%.0s%%-5s ' $l # make a string of repeated "%-5s"
$ printf -v b ',$%s' $l # make string of field numbers as "$1,$2.."
$ awk -va="$a" 'printf a "n"'"$b"'' infile4

But you could also do it all inside awk:

$ awk 'split($0,a); for(i in a)printf "%-5s", $i; print ""' infile

The split in awk will use the same regex in FS as used to split the line into fields and place each value in the array a.

The for will (auto) loop over all fields.

The printf will print all fields with the same format.

And, the final print will place a newline at the end of the line.

This is more flexible as it will work for any amount of fields, even lines with varying number of fields. And is complete inside only one language (easier to understand and maintain).

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
3 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

You could (but I do not recomend this) build some vars in steps (an example in bash):

$ printf -v l '%s ' 1..30 # list of numbers to use
$ printf -v a '%.0s%%-5s ' $l # make a string of repeated "%-5s"
$ printf -v b ',$%s' $l # make string of field numbers as "$1,$2.."
$ awk -va="$a" 'printf a "n"'"$b"'' infile4

But you could also do it all inside awk:

$ awk 'split($0,a); for(i in a)printf "%-5s", $i; print ""' infile

The split in awk will use the same regex in FS as used to split the line into fields and place each value in the array a.

The for will (auto) loop over all fields.

The printf will print all fields with the same format.

And, the final print will place a newline at the end of the line.

This is more flexible as it will work for any amount of fields, even lines with varying number of fields. And is complete inside only one language (easier to understand and maintain).

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

You could (but I do not recomend this) build some vars in steps (an example in bash):

$ printf -v l '%s ' 1..30 # list of numbers to use
$ printf -v a '%.0s%%-5s ' $l # make a string of repeated "%-5s"
$ printf -v b ',$%s' $l # make string of field numbers as "$1,$2.."
$ awk -va="$a" 'printf a "n"'"$b"'' infile4

But you could also do it all inside awk:

$ awk 'split($0,a); for(i in a)printf "%-5s", $i; print ""' infile

The split in awk will use the same regex in FS as used to split the line into fields and place each value in the array a.

The for will (auto) loop over all fields.

The printf will print all fields with the same format.

And, the final print will place a newline at the end of the line.

This is more flexible as it will work for any amount of fields, even lines with varying number of fields. And is complete inside only one language (easier to understand and maintain).

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

answered 6 mins ago

Isaac

7,0621834

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
3 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

Thank you for the solution. I would like to kindly inquire about operations in specific columns. Let's say, I would like to sum the rows that define column #27 in my table. How can I include this operation in your command? Thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
3 mins ago

add a commentÂ |Â

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