Nicely formatting output to console, specifying number of tabs - ruby

Question

I am generating a script that is outputting information to the console. The information is some kind of statistic with a value. So much like a hash.
So one value's name may be 8 characters long and another is 3. when I am looping through outputting the information with two \t some of the columns aren't aligned correctly.
So for example the output might be as such:
long value name 14
short 12
little 13
tiny 123421
long name again 912421
I want all the values lined up correctly. Right now I am doing this:
puts "#{value_name} - \t\t #{value}"
How could I say for long names, to only use one tab? Or is there another solution?

Answer 1

Provided you know the maximum length to be no more than 20 characters:
printf "%-20s %s\n", value_name, value
If you want to make it more dynamic, something like this should work nicely:
longest_key = data_hash.keys.max_by(&:length)
data_hash.each do |key, value|
printf "%-#{longest_key.length}s %s\n", key, value
end

Answer 2

There is usually a %10s kind of printf scheme that formats nicely.
However, I have not used ruby at all, so you need to check that.
Yes, there is printf with formatting.
The above example should right align in a space of 10 chars.
You can format based on your widest field in the column.
printf ([port, ]format, arg...)
Prints arguments formatted according to the format like sprintf. If the first argument is the instance of the IO or its subclass, print redirected to that object. the default is the value of $stdout.

Answer 3

String has a built-in ljust for exactly this:
x = {"foo"=>37, "something long"=>42, "between"=>99}
x.each { |k, v| puts "#{k.ljust(20)} #{v}" }
# Outputs:
# foo 37
# something long 42
# between 99
Or, if you want tabs, you can do a little math (assuming tab display width of 8) and write a short display function:
def tab_pad(label, tab_stop = 4)
label_tabs = label.length / 8
label.ljust(label.length + tab_stop - label_tabs, "\t")
end
x.each { |k, v| puts "#{tab_pad(k)}#{v}" }
# Outputs:
# foo 37
# something long 42
# between 99

Answer 4

There was few bugs in it before, but now you can use most of printf syntax with % operator:
1.9.3-p194 :025 > " %-20s %05d" % ['hello', 12]
=> " hello 00012"
Of course you can use precalculated width too:
1.9.3-p194 :030 > "%-#{width}s %05x" % ['hello', 12]
=> "hello 0000c"

Answer 5

I wrote a thing
Automatically detects column widths
Spaces with spaces
Array of arrays [[],[],...] or array of hashes [{},{},...]
Does not detect columns too wide for console window
lists = [
[ 123, "SDLKFJSLDKFJSLDKFJLSDKJF" ],
[ 123456, "ffff" ],
]
array_maxes
def array_maxes(lists)
lists.reduce([]) do |maxes, list|
list.each_with_index do |value, index|
maxes[index] = [(maxes[index] || 0), value.to_s.length].max
end
maxes
end
end
array_maxes(lists)
# => [6, 24]
puts_arrays_columns
def puts_arrays_columns(lists)
maxes = array_maxes(hashes)
lists.each do |list|
list.each_with_index do |value, index|
print " #{value.to_s.rjust(maxes[index])},"
end
puts
end
end
puts_arrays_columns(lists)
# Output:
# 123, SDLKFJSLDKFJSLDKFJLSDKJF,
# 123456, ffff,
and another thing
hashes = [
{ "id" => 123, "name" => "SDLKFJSLDKFJSLDKFJLSDKJF" },
{ "id" => 123456, "name" => "ffff" },
]
hash_maxes
def hash_maxes(hashes)
hashes.reduce({}) do |maxes, hash|
hash.keys.each do |key|
maxes[key] = [(maxes[key] || 0), key.to_s.length].max
maxes[key] = [(maxes[key] || 0), hash[key].to_s.length].max
end
maxes
end
end
hash_maxes(hashes)
# => {"id"=>6, "name"=>24}
puts_hashes_columns
def puts_hashes_columns(hashes)
maxes = hash_maxes(hashes)
return if hashes.empty?
# Headers
hashes.first.each do |key, value|
print " #{key.to_s.rjust(maxes[key])},"
end
puts
hashes.each do |hash|
hash.each do |key, value|
print " #{value.to_s.rjust(maxes[key])},"
end
puts
end
end
puts_hashes_columns(hashes)
# Output:
# id, name,
# 123, SDLKFJSLDKFJSLDKFJLSDKJF,
# 123456, ffff,
Edit: Fixes hash keys considered in the length.
hashes = [
{ id: 123, name: "DLKFJSDLKFJSLDKFJSDF", asdfasdf: :a },
{ id: 123456, name: "ffff", asdfasdf: :ab },
]
hash_maxes(hashes)
# => {:id=>6, :name=>20, :asdfasdf=>8}
Want to whitelist columns columns?
hashes.map{ |h| h.slice(:id, :name) }
# => [
# { id: 123, name: "DLKFJSDLKFJSLDKFJSDF" },
# { id: 123456, name: "ffff" },
#]

Answer 6

For future reference and people who look at this or find it... Use a gem. I suggest https://github.com/wbailey/command_line_reporter

Answer 7

You typically don't want to use tabs, you want to use spaces and essentially setup your "columns" your self or else you run into these types of problems.