column(1) [centos man page]
COLUMN(1) User Commands COLUMN(1) NAME
column - columnate lists SYNOPSIS
column [options] file... DESCRIPTION
The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. Rows are filled before columns. Input is taken from file or, by default, from standard input. Empty lines are ignored. OPTIONS
-c, --columns width Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters. -t, --table Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table. Columns are delimited with whitespace, by default, or with the characters supplied using the separator. Table output is useful for pretty-printing. -s, --separator separators Specify possible table delimiters (default is whitespace). -o, --output-separator separators Specify table output delimiter (default is two whitespaces). -x, --fillrows Fill columns before filling rows. -h, --help Print help and exit. ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable COLUMNS is used to determine the size of the screen if no other information is available. EXAMPLES
sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column -t BUGS
The util-linux version 2.23 changed -s option to be non-greedy, for example: $ printf "a:b:c 1::3 " | column -t -s ':' old output: a b c 1 3 new output (since util-linux 2.23) a b c 1 3 SEE ALSO
colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1) HISTORY
The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno. AVAILABILITY
The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/. util-linux October 2010 COLUMN(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
COL(1) BSD General Commands Manual COL(1) NAME
col -- filter reverse line feeds from input SYNOPSIS
col [-bfpx] [-l num] DESCRIPTION
Col filters out reverse (and half reverse) line feeds so the output is in the correct order with only forward and half forward line feeds, and replaces white-space characters with tabs where possible. This can be useful in processing the output of nroff(1) and tbl(1). Col reads from standard input and writes to standard output. The options are as follows: -b Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character written to each column position. -f Forward half line feeds are permitted (``fine'' mode). Normally characters printed on a half line boundary are printed on the follow- ing line. -p Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged. Normally, col will filter out any control sequences from the input other than those recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below. -x Output multiple spaces instead of tabs. -lnum Buffer at least num lines in memory. By default, 128 lines are buffered. The control sequences for carriage motion that col understands and their decimal values are listed in the following table: ESC-7 reverse line feed (escape then 7) ESC-8 half reverse line feed (escape then 8) ESC-9 half forward line feed (escape then 9) backspace moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column carriage return (13) newline forward line feed (10); also does carriage return shift in shift to normal character set (15) shift out shift to alternate character set (14) space moves forward one column (32) tab moves forward to next tab stop (9) vertical tab reverse line feed (11) All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are discarded. Col keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes sure the character set is correct when they are output. If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line, col will display a warning message. SEE ALSO
expand(1), nroff(1), tbl(1) STANDARDS
The col utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The -l option is an extension to the standard. HISTORY
A col command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. AVAILABILITY
The col command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/. BSD
June 17, 1991 BSD