2016 Update

Task/Align-columns/AWK/align-columns.awk

@@ -1,34 +1,41 @@
+# syntax: GAWK -f ALIGN_COLUMNS.AWK ALIGN_COLUMNS.TXT
 BEGIN {
-  FS="$"
-  lcounter = 1
-  maxfield = 0
-  # justification; pick one
-  #justify = "left"
-  justify = "center"
-  #justify = "right"
+    colsep = " " # separator between columns
+    report("raw data")
 }
-{
-  if ( NF > maxfield ) maxfield = NF;
-  for(i=1; i <= NF; i++) {
-    line[lcounter,i] = $i
-    if ( longest[i] == "" ) longest[i] = 0;
-    if ( length($i) > longest[i] ) longest[i] = length($i);
-  }
-  lcounter++
+{   printf("%s\n",$0)
+    arr[NR] = $0
+    n = split($0,tmp_arr,"$")
+    for (j=1; j<=n; j++) {
+      width = max(width,length(tmp_arr[j]))
+    }
 }
 END {
-  just = (justify == "left") ? "-" : ""
-  for(i=1; i <= NR; i++) {
-    for(j=1; j <= maxfield; j++) {
-      if ( justify != "center" ) {
-	template = "%" just longest[j] "s "
-      } else {
-	v = int((longest[j] - length(line[i,j]))/2)
-	rt = "%" v+1 "s%%-%ds"
-	template = sprintf(rt, "", longest[j] - v)
-      }
-      printf(template, line[i,j])
-    }
-    print ""
-  }
+    report("left justified")
+    report("right justified")
+    report("center justified")
+    exit(0)
 }
+function report(text,  diff,i,j,l,n,r,tmp_arr) {
+    printf("\nreport: %s\n",text)
+    for (i=1; i<=NR; i++) {
+      n = split(arr[i],tmp_arr,"$")
+      if (tmp_arr[n] == "") { n-- }
+      for (j=1; j<=n; j++) {
+        if (text ~ /^[Ll]/) { # left
+          printf("%-*s%s",width,tmp_arr[j],colsep)
+        }
+        else if (text ~ /^[Rr]/) { # right
+          printf("%*s%s",width,tmp_arr[j],colsep)
+        }
+        else if (text ~ /^[Cc]/) { # center
+          diff = width - length(tmp_arr[j])
+          l = r = int(diff / 2)
+          if (diff != l + r) { r++ }
+          printf("%*s%s%*s%s",l,"",tmp_arr[j],r,"",colsep)
+        }
+      }
+      printf("\n")
+    }
+}
+function max(x,y) { return((x > y) ? x : y) }