How to use python to format strings with delimiter into columns

Question

lets say the variable "info" has the following string:

abc: 234234
aadfa: 235345
bcsd: 992

In python, what is the simplest way to format "info" to:

abc:    234234
aadfa:  235345
bcsd:   992

Answer 1

This will work:

>>> s = """abc: 234234
... aadfa: 235345
... bcsd: 992"""
>>> print s
abc: 234234
aadfa: 235345
bcsd: 992

Now we can split on the new line and the space to get each item per line:

>>> pairs = [x.split() for x in s.split('\n') ]
>>> pairs
[['abc:', ' 234234'], ['aadfa:', ' 235345'], ['bcsd:', ' 992']]

And now format each string:

>>> for pair in pairs:
...     print '{0:10} {1}'.format(pair[0], pair[1])
...
abc:        234234
aadfa:      235345
bcsd:       992

Note how we use {0:10} in the string formatting? That just means to format that argument with 10 characters.

Answer 2

Stealing @JoshSmeaton's variable name:

>>> pairs = map(str.split, text.splitlines())
>>> max_len = max(len(pair[0]) for pair in pairs)
>>> info = '\n'.join('{key:<{indent}}{val}'.format(key=k,
                                                   indent=max_len + 2,
                                                   val=v) for k, v in pairs)
>>> print info
abc:    234234
aadfa:  235345
bcsd:   992

Answer 3

Hope the following code helps.

>>> import math
>>> info = ["abc: 234234", "aadfa: 235345", "bcsd: 992"]
>>> info = [item.split() for item in info]
>>> maxlen = max([len(item[0]) for item in info])
>>> maxlen = math.ceil(maxlen/8.0)*8
>>> info = [item[0]+" "*(maxlen-len(item[0]))+item[1] for item in info]

You can control how the final length is made.