Columnize - format an Array as a Column-aligned String

In showing long lists, sometimes one would prefer to see the values arranged and aligned in columns. Some examples include listing methods of an object, listing debugger commands, or showing a numeric array with data aligned.

Setup

use Array::Columnize;

Simple data example

print columnize(['a','b','c','d'], {displaywidth=>4}), "\n";

produces:

a  c
b  d

With numeric data

my $data_ref = [80..120];
print columnize($data_ref, {ljust = 0}) ;

produces:

80  83  86  89  92  95   98  101  104  107  110  113  116  119
81  84  87  90  93  96   99  102  105  108  111  114  117  120
82  85  88  91  94  97  100  103  106  109  112  115  118

while:

print columnize($data_ref, {ljust = 0, arrange_vertical = 0}) ;

produces:

 80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89
 90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99
100  101  102  103  104  105  106  107  108  109
110  111  112  113  114  115  116  117  118  119
120

And

$num_ary = [1..30];
puts columnize $num_ary, 
{displaywidth => 18, 
        {arrange_array => 1, ljust =>0, displaywidth => 70});

produces:

( 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)

With String data

@ary = qw(bibrons golden madascar leopard mourning suras tokay);
print columnize(\@ary, {displaywidth => 18});

produces:

bibrons   mourning
golden    suras   
madascar  tokay   
leopard 

puts columnize \@ary, {displaywidth => 18, colsep => ' | '};

produces:

bibrons  | mourning
golden   | suras   
madascar | tokay   
leopard 

Credits

This is adapted from my Ruby gem of the same name.

Other stuff

Author: Rocky Bernstein rocky@cpan.org

License: Copyright (c) 2011, 2012 Rocky Bernstein

Warranty

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.