string - Create nice column output in python

Question

I am trying to create a nice column list in python for use with commandline admin tools which I create.

Basicly, I want a list like:

[['a', 'b', 'c'], ['aaaaaaaaaa', 'b', 'c'], ['a', 'bbbbbbbbbb', 'c']]

To turn into:

a            b            c
aaaaaaaaaa   b            c
a            bbbbbbbbbb   c

Using plain tabs wont do the trick here because I don't know the longest data in each row.

This is the same behavior as 'column -t' in Linux..

$ echo -e "a b c
aaaaaaaaaa b c
a bbbbbbbbbb c"
a b c
aaaaaaaaaa b c
a bbbbbbbbbb c

$ echo -e "a b c
aaaaaaaaaa b c
a bbbbbbbbbb c" | column -t
a           b           c
aaaaaaaaaa  b           c
a           bbbbbbbbbb  c

I have looked around for various python libraries to do this but can't find anything useful.

Answer 1

Since Python 2.6+, you can use a format string in the following way to set the columns to a minimum of 20 characters and align text to right.

table_data = [
    ['a', 'b', 'c'],
    ['aaaaaaaaaa', 'b', 'c'], 
    ['a', 'bbbbbbbbbb', 'c']
]
for row in table_data:
    print("{: >20} {: >20} {: >20}".format(*row))

Output:

               a                    b                    c
      aaaaaaaaaa                    b                    c
               a           bbbbbbbbbb                    c