How do I center-align a column in UNIX?
I’m trying to center-align a column using the command column.
The output should look like this:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
How can I do this?
shell columns
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
add a comment |
I’m trying to center-align a column using the command column.
The output should look like this:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
How can I do this?
shell columns
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
1
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use thecolumncommand until I wrote my answer.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
If you really need to use thecolumncommand, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation totemperatures.
– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57
add a comment |
I’m trying to center-align a column using the command column.
The output should look like this:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
How can I do this?
shell columns
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
I’m trying to center-align a column using the command column.
The output should look like this:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
How can I do this?
shell columns
shell columns
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
edited May 1 '15 at 23:20
yellowantphil
5521319
5521319
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
asked May 1 '15 at 22:27
billy klarrbilly klarr
294
294
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
1
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use thecolumncommand until I wrote my answer.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
If you really need to use thecolumncommand, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation totemperatures.
– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57
add a comment |
1
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use thecolumncommand until I wrote my answer.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
If you really need to use thecolumncommand, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.
– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation totemperatures.
– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57
1
1
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use the
column command until I wrote my answer.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use the
column command until I wrote my answer.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
If you really need to use the
column command, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
If you really need to use the
column command, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation to
temperatures.– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation to
temperatures.– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
I wrote this answer before noticing that you want to use the column command, but if that isn’t a requirement, you can center text with this bash shell script:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # exit the script if something goes wrong
width=12
data="temperatures 50 12 89 63"
for word in $data; do
strlen=$(printf $word | wc -c)
w=$(( ($width - $strlen)/2 ))
printf "%${w}s%sn" "" $word
done
How it works:
$widthis the column width- The
forloop prints every word in$data
$strlenis the length of the current word, in bytes.
$wis the number of spaces to print before the word to make it centered.
printfprints$wspaces, followed by the word
Output:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
This script will only work for single-byte text encodings. You would need to change the strlen line to handle text containing a 🐱, for example.
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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active
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1 Answer
1
active
oldest
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oldest
votes
I wrote this answer before noticing that you want to use the column command, but if that isn’t a requirement, you can center text with this bash shell script:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # exit the script if something goes wrong
width=12
data="temperatures 50 12 89 63"
for word in $data; do
strlen=$(printf $word | wc -c)
w=$(( ($width - $strlen)/2 ))
printf "%${w}s%sn" "" $word
done
How it works:
$widthis the column width- The
forloop prints every word in$data
$strlenis the length of the current word, in bytes.
$wis the number of spaces to print before the word to make it centered.
printfprints$wspaces, followed by the word
Output:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
This script will only work for single-byte text encodings. You would need to change the strlen line to handle text containing a 🐱, for example.
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
add a comment |
I wrote this answer before noticing that you want to use the column command, but if that isn’t a requirement, you can center text with this bash shell script:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # exit the script if something goes wrong
width=12
data="temperatures 50 12 89 63"
for word in $data; do
strlen=$(printf $word | wc -c)
w=$(( ($width - $strlen)/2 ))
printf "%${w}s%sn" "" $word
done
How it works:
$widthis the column width- The
forloop prints every word in$data
$strlenis the length of the current word, in bytes.
$wis the number of spaces to print before the word to make it centered.
printfprints$wspaces, followed by the word
Output:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
This script will only work for single-byte text encodings. You would need to change the strlen line to handle text containing a 🐱, for example.
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
add a comment |
I wrote this answer before noticing that you want to use the column command, but if that isn’t a requirement, you can center text with this bash shell script:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # exit the script if something goes wrong
width=12
data="temperatures 50 12 89 63"
for word in $data; do
strlen=$(printf $word | wc -c)
w=$(( ($width - $strlen)/2 ))
printf "%${w}s%sn" "" $word
done
How it works:
$widthis the column width- The
forloop prints every word in$data
$strlenis the length of the current word, in bytes.
$wis the number of spaces to print before the word to make it centered.
printfprints$wspaces, followed by the word
Output:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
This script will only work for single-byte text encodings. You would need to change the strlen line to handle text containing a 🐱, for example.
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
I wrote this answer before noticing that you want to use the column command, but if that isn’t a requirement, you can center text with this bash shell script:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # exit the script if something goes wrong
width=12
data="temperatures 50 12 89 63"
for word in $data; do
strlen=$(printf $word | wc -c)
w=$(( ($width - $strlen)/2 ))
printf "%${w}s%sn" "" $word
done
How it works:
$widthis the column width- The
forloop prints every word in$data
$strlenis the length of the current word, in bytes.
$wis the number of spaces to print before the word to make it centered.
printfprints$wspaces, followed by the word
Output:
temperatures
50
12
89
63
This script will only work for single-byte text encodings. You would need to change the strlen line to handle text containing a 🐱, for example.
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
edited May 1 '15 at 23:14
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
answered May 1 '15 at 22:50
yellowantphilyellowantphil
5521319
5521319
add a comment |
add a comment |
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1
How about your input? Does it only have this column left-aligned?
– rahul
May 1 '15 at 22:36
yes. the input file is just 50 12 89 63 in a column. when i run the file i want it to be center aligned.
– billy klarr
May 1 '15 at 22:48
I didn’t notice that you wanted to use the
columncommand until I wrote my answer.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:11
If you really need to use the
columncommand, nothing comes to mind. It prints text left-aligned.– yellowantphil
May 1 '15 at 23:21
What do you want your numbers centered in relation to?. Your sample output does not show them being centered in relation to
temperatures.– Peter.O
May 2 '15 at 8:57