From: Xavier Noria <fxn@...>
Date: 2008-01-29T03:15:56+09:00
Subject: Re: lining up delimiter separated text

On Jan 28, 2008, at 6:44 PM, scooterm@hotmail.com wrote:

> BEFORE:
> fname ;; lname ;; age ;; sex ;;
> homer   ;; simpson ;; 33 ;; male
> maggie;; simpson ;; 03 ;; female
> bart;;simpson;;10;;male
>
> AFTER:
> fname   ;;  lname   ;;  age ;;  sex
> homer   ;;  simpson ;;  33  ;;  male
> maggie  ;;  simpson ;;  03  ;;  female
> bart    ;;  simpson ;;  10  ;;  male
>
> REQUEST:
> Show a really cool way to change before into after with
> ruby. Cool = fewest lines OR just plain clever.

Modulus whitespace, here's a solution

records = DATA.readlines.map {|line| line.chomp.split(/\s*;;\s*/)}
max_widths = records.transpose.map {|col| col.map {|cell|  
cell.length}.max}

records.each do |r|
   format = max_widths[0...r.size].map {|mw| "%-#{mw}s"}.join(" ;; ")
   puts format % r
end

__END__
fname ;; lname ;; age ;; sex ;;
homer   ;; simpson ;; 33 ;; male
maggie;; simpson ;; 03 ;; female
bart;;simpson;;10;;male