From: Paul Duncan <pabs@...>
Date: 2002-08-01T15:32:20+09:00
Subject: Re: How to make a virtual 2nd column!!!

* Kurt Euler (keuler@portal.com) wrote:
> All-
> 
> Here's a record formatting question for you:
> 
> Say I have a record like in this format...
> 
> nnnnn<tab>This is a sample sentence meant to demonstrate desired word wrapping to make the appearance of a virtual column from a single long string that doesn't have any hard returns.
> 
> ... and I want to format it to look something like this:
> 
> nnnnn   This is a sample sentence meant to 
>         demonstrate desired word wrapping 
>         to make the appearance of a virtual 
>         column from a single long string 
>         that doesn't have any hard returns.
> 
> where:
> 
> - nnnnn is a 5 character string.
> - <tab> is a tab character (to be replaced by three spaces).
> - The first space after every 35 or so characters in the sentence (2nd
> field of the record) is replaced by a hard return plus eight spaces.
> - The sample above is one of many records in a file, separated by a
> hard return.

I know you already got one response, but here's another one anyway:

--
#!/usr/bin/env ruby

def print_record(record, width = 35)
  # get record identifier
  id = record.slice! 0..5

  # remove delimiting whitespace
  record.slice! 0..3
  
  # split up record into individual words
  words = record.split /\s+/

  line = id << ' '
  while words.length > 0
    # append word to current line
    line << ' ' << words.shift

    # if current line is past the specified width, 
    # print it out and start a new line
    puts line or line = ' ' * 7 if line.length > width
  end

  # print out last line
  puts line
end

# process each file passed on the command-line
# (ruby 1.7 can do this in a slightly more concise manner
# with File::readlines)
ARGV.each { |path|
  File.open(path) { |file|
    file.each { |line|
      print_record(line, 35)
    }
  }
}
--

And the sample data:

--
01234   this is a sample identifier golly look how long this string is hopefully it gets dumped out correctly ladedadeda humdedum.
56789   this is a sample identifier golly look how long this string is hopefully it gets dumped out correctly ladedadeda humdedum. here is an even longer string aslgkjflskdjflksajfl dlska sfdsdf ldfaskjf lkdfjsaljldf  salfdkdflskj f fdlkadflf al fdldk jfdkldsfj dsf.
--

Gives me the following output:

pabs@vault:~/proj/asdf> ./print_record.rb sample.txt 
01234   is is a sample identifier golly
        look how long this string is
        hopefully it gets dumped out
        correctly ladedadeda humdedum.
       
56789   is is a sample identifier golly
        look how long this string is
        hopefully it gets dumped out
        correctly ladedadeda humdedum.
        here is an even longer string
        aslgkjflskdjflksajfl dlska sfdsdf
        ldfaskjf lkdfjsaljldf salfdkdflskj
        f fdlkadflf al fdldk jfdkldsfj
        dsf.
pabs@vault:~/proj/asdf>

> Thanks again, friends!
> 
> -Kurt

-- 
Paul Duncan <pabs@pablotron.org>        pabs in #gah (OPN IRC)
http://www.pablotron.org/               OpenPGP Key ID: 0x82C29562