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Is there any way to format the output of a grep command to align the columns nicely? For example: 

4TO/struct-2222332/coord-2222332.out:          FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION =       -299.61496 KCAL/MOL =   -1253.58899 KJ/MOL
2E/struct-1212123/coord-1212123.out:          FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION =       -299.61496 KCAL/MOL =   -1253.58901 KJ/MOL
OT4/struct-2222121/coord-2222121.out:          FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION =       -299.61497 KCAL/MOL =   -1253.58904 KJ/MOL
E3/struct-1312322/coord-1312322.out:          FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION =       -299.61497 KCAL/MOL =   -1253.58903 KJ/MOL

I want to allocate 40 spaces for column one and align them from the left. Similarly, do the same for other columns based on the expected maximum size of each column.

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    can you show the initial output? Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 16:24

1 Answer 1

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You can use the column command (if you're using Linux), to format the data into tab delimited columns. I don't think you can specify a different column width for the first column vs other columns, though. 

bash-[24]$ column -t /tmp/output
4TO/struct-2222332/coord-2222332.out:  FINAL  HEAT  OF  FORMATION  =  -299.61496  KCAL/MOL  =  -1253.58899  KJ/MOL
2E/struct-1212123/coord-1212123.out:   FINAL  HEAT  OF  FORMATION  =  -299.61496  KCAL/MOL  =  -1253.58901  KJ/MOL
OT4/struct-2222121/coord-2222121.out:  FINAL  HEAT  OF  FORMATION  =  -299.61497  KCAL/MOL  =  -1253.58904  KJ/MOL
E3/struct-1312322/coord-1312322.out:   FINAL  HEAT  OF  FORMATION  =  -299.61497  KCAL/MOL  =  -1253.58903  KJ/MOL

Your other option would be to parse the files, split the fields, and process the columns yourself with awk and printf().

bash-[54]$ awk '{printf "%-40s",$1 ; $1=""; printf "%-s\n",$0}' /tmp/output
4TO/struct-2222332/coord-2222332.out:    FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION = -299.61496 KCAL/MOL = -1253.58899 KJ/MOL
2E/struct-1212123/coord-1212123.out:     FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION = -299.61496 KCAL/MOL = -1253.58901 KJ/MOL
OT4/struct-2222121/coord-2222121.out:    FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION = -299.61497 KCAL/MOL = -1253.58904 KJ/MOL
E3/struct-1312322/coord-1312322.out:     FINAL HEAT OF FORMATION = -299.61497 KCAL/MOL = -1253.58903 KJ/MOL
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    Pedantry dictates I have to highlight the "useless cat" here. column -t /tmp/output serves beautifully here. Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 16:38
  • 'column -t' works great for me. Thanks! Commented Apr 17, 2017 at 17:40
  • Though, I am using column -t, as it is convenient, but I want to understand the second option too. My understanding is, 1) use 40 space to print column one (- for left alignment) 2) then replace column 1 with empty character or basically removing column one from the whole record 3) then print the whole record with left alignment. Am I right? Commented Apr 30, 2017 at 20:09
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    @mamun, Yes, you are understanding it correctly. Commented May 1, 2017 at 15:40

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