CODEWITHSUNDEEP
stringbash
phil
phil

Reputation: 3

Using printf with bash. printed strings overflowing columns

I'm using Bash. I am using printf "%-40s%s" $a $b to display two strings in two columns. The second string is very long and is overflowing and printing at the beginning of the next line in the first column. How can I make the string in the second column overflow into the second column?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 226

Answers (2)

Etan Reisner
Etan Reisner

Reputation: 80931

This is not pretty and I still feel like it could be better (but I don't see any obvious ways of making it better) but it works (thought doesn't have correct alignment for the first column) for me:

col.sh:

#!/bin/bash

a=$1
b=$2
w=${3:-$(tput cols)}


fmta=$(fold -w 40 <<<"$a")
lca=$(wc -l <<<"$fmta")

fmtb=$(fold -w $(( w - 40 )) <<<"$b")
lcb=$(wc -l <<<"$fmtb")

if [ "$lca" -lt "$lcb" ]; then
    fmta+=$(printf ' \n%.0s' $(seq 0 $(( lcb - lca ))))
fi

pr -t -2 <<<"$fmta"$'\n'"$fmtb"

Run as:

$ a=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
$ b=bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
$ ./col.sh "$a" "$b"

Takes a third optional argument for terminal width for when $(tput cols) doesn't work. Can probably use ./col.sh "$a" "$b" "$COLUMNS".

Upvotes: 0

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785068

You can use:

printf "%40s\n%40s\n" "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" "bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb"
             aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
             bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

- before 40 is for left alignment.

Upvotes: 1

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