From: Paul Rubel <rubel@...>
Date: 2002-08-01T22:22:01+09:00
Subject: Re: How to make a virtual 2nd column!!!

Hi Kurt,
Kurt Euler <keuler@portal.com> wrote:

> Here's a record formatting question for you:

You might want to look into FormatR ;)
http://www.crhc.uiuc.edu/~rubel/FormatR/

> 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.

> Thanks again, friends!

> -Kurt

 I have two examples below, one pulls out the number and the other
doesn't. They both give the same output. Watch out because they will
modify line, you may need a copy if you'll want the contents later.
  Enjoy,
	Paul

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require "format.rb"
include FormatR

#Have the number by itself
template1 = <<DOT
@<<<<   ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
num, line1
~      ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
line1
DOT

#The number is in the format. As the string is left justified
# the extra spaces between the number and the rest of the string get
# pushed to the end and aren't shown.
template2 = []
template2.push ('^<<<<   ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<')
template2.push ('line2, line2')
template2.push ('~~      ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<')
template2.push ('line2')

f = Format.new (template1);
f2 = Format.new (template2);

num = 12345
line1 = "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."

line2 = "12345   " + line1

puts "template 1"
f.printFormat (binding)

puts "template 2"
f2.printFormat (binding)

/tmp> ./rt.rb
template 1
12345   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.
template 2
12345   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.