Calling an array inside awk to create a table with fixed-width columns

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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 anyway 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 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

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up vote
5
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 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
5
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 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

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 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

edited 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

edited 55 mins ago

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

asked 3 hours ago

Goro

2,55141849

add a commentÂ |Â

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
8
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 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

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
1 hour ago

1

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

You could (but I do not recommend 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).

Or even:

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

You may change the format to %-5.5s to cut fields that are longer than 5 characters.

Note that awk's printf incorrectly counts decomposed character like eÃŒÂ as two characters. It seems to count Unicode code points (a common issue) instead of Unicode clusters.

EDIT
Answering this additional question from the comments:

sum the rows that define column #27 in my table

Just add the needed code:

$ awk 'split($0,a); 
 sum=sum+a[27];
 for(i in a) printf "%-5s", $i ;
 print ""
 END 
 print "Sum of column 27 is =", sum 
 ' infile

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

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
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
8
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 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

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
1 hour ago

1

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
8
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 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

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
1 hour ago

1

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
8
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 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

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 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

answered 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

answered 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

answered 3 hours ago

Stephen Harris

21.6k23973

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
1 hour ago

1

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour 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
1 hour ago

1

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour 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
1 hour ago

Before the for loop you could do something like sum += $27 and then at the very end you can use something like END print sum to print it out
â€“Â Stephen Harris
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

You could (but I do not recommend 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).

Or even:

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

You may change the format to %-5.5s to cut fields that are longer than 5 characters.

Note that awk's printf incorrectly counts decomposed character like eÃŒÂ as two characters. It seems to count Unicode code points (a common issue) instead of Unicode clusters.

EDIT
Answering this additional question from the comments:

sum the rows that define column #27 in my table

Just add the needed code:

$ awk 'split($0,a); 
 sum=sum+a[27];
 for(i in a) printf "%-5s", $i ;
 print ""
 END 
 print "Sum of column 27 is =", sum 
 ' infile

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

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
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

You could (but I do not recommend 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).

Or even:

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

You may change the format to %-5.5s to cut fields that are longer than 5 characters.

Note that awk's printf incorrectly counts decomposed character like eÃŒÂ as two characters. It seems to count Unicode code points (a common issue) instead of Unicode clusters.

EDIT
Answering this additional question from the comments:

sum the rows that define column #27 in my table

Just add the needed code:

$ awk 'split($0,a); 
 sum=sum+a[27];
 for(i in a) printf "%-5s", $i ;
 print ""
 END 
 print "Sum of column 27 is =", sum 
 ' infile

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

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
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

You could (but I do not recommend 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).

Or even:

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

You may change the format to %-5.5s to cut fields that are longer than 5 characters.

Note that awk's printf incorrectly counts decomposed character like eÃŒÂ as two characters. It seems to count Unicode code points (a common issue) instead of Unicode clusters.

EDIT
Answering this additional question from the comments:

sum the rows that define column #27 in my table

Just add the needed code:

$ awk 'split($0,a); 
 sum=sum+a[27];
 for(i in a) printf "%-5s", $i ;
 print ""
 END 
 print "Sum of column 27 is =", sum 
 ' infile

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

You could (but I do not recommend 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).

Or even:

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

You may change the format to %-5.5s to cut fields that are longer than 5 characters.

Note that awk's printf incorrectly counts decomposed character like eÃŒÂ as two characters. It seems to count Unicode code points (a common issue) instead of Unicode clusters.

EDIT
Answering this additional question from the comments:

sum the rows that define column #27 in my table

Just add the needed code:

$ awk 'split($0,a); 
 sum=sum+a[27];
 for(i in a) printf "%-5s", $i ;
 print ""
 END 
 print "Sum of column 27 is =", sum 
 ' infile

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

answered 1 hour ago

Isaac

7,0721834

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
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour 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
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour ago

I wish I can give you two thumb-up ;-) thanks again!
â€“Â Goro
1 hour ago

Hey, ... You could still select this answer as the accepted one ! :-)
â€“Â Isaac
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

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