Shell Script output formatting echo-CodePudding

I have output from a shell script like below

##########################################################
Creation date: 15-03-2022 / 15:03
performed by: user
Environment: E_MTE_04
Reference - Repository: TEST
-BSL Number of documents: XXX
-Syr Number of documents: XXX
-DEB Number of documents: XXX
Candidate - Repository: TEST
-BSL Number of documents: XXX
-Syr Number of documents: XXX
-DEB Number of documents: XXX

I tried to format it with equal spacing inside script but output still not have uniform spacing. I want to print the output like below.

##########################################################
Creation date:                     15-03-2022 / 15:03
performed by:                      user
Environment:                       E_MTE_04
Reference - Repository:            TEST
-BSL Number of documents:          XXX
-Syr Number of documents:          XXX
-DEB Number of documents:          XXX
Candidate - Repository:            TEST
-BSL Number of documents:          XXX
-Syr Number of documents:          XXX
-DEB Number of documents:          XXX

Are there any commnads available to get this done. I use bash. here is the code.

echo "##########################################################" >> $log
echo Creation date: $today" / $time">> $log
echo performed by: $USER >> $log
echo Environment: $firstEnv >> $log
echo Reference - Repository: $firstParamomsID >> $log
echo -BSL Number of documents: XXX >> $log
echo -Syr Number of documents: XXX >> $log
echo -DEB Number of documents: XXX >> $log
echo Candidate - Repository: $secondParamomsID >> $log
echo -BSL Number of documents: XXX >> $log
echo -Syr Number of documents: XXX >> $log
echo -DEB Number of documents: XXX >> $log

Thanks

CodePudding user response：

Add the spaces between the label and the variable

Change:

echo Creation date: $today" / $time">> $log

To:

echo Creation date:                     $today" / $time">> $log

CodePudding user response：

Use tabs to separate columns, then use the standard expand utility to expand tabs using spaces. For example,

printf '%s\t%s\n' "Creation date:" "15-03-2022 / 15:03" \
                  "performed by: " "user" \
                  "Environment: " "E_MTE_04" |
  expand -t 20

produces

Creation date:      15-03-2022 / 15:03
performed by:       user
Environment:        E_MTE_04

The only thing you need to do is ensure the tab stops specified by the -t option are large enough to accommodate the longest string in each column.

CodePudding user response：

Assuming you can change the script, one idea would be to replace the echo calls with printf, eg:

Setup:

today='15-03-2022'
time='15:03'
USER=user
firstEnv='E_MTE_04'
firstParamomsID='TEST'
secondaryParamomsID='TEST'

Our printf format string:

fmt="%-30s %s\n"

Where:

%-30%s - print the 1st argument in a left-justified field of width 30
%s\n - print 2nd argument followed by a linefeed

Replacing current echo code looks like:

echo "##########################################################"
printf "${fmt}" "Creation date:" "${today} / ${time}"
printf "${fmt}" "performed by:" "${USER}"
printf "${fmt}" "Environment:" "${firstEnv}"
printf "${fmt}" "Reference - Repository:" "${firstParamomsID}"
printf "${fmt}" "-BSL Number of documents:" "XXX"
printf "${fmt}" "-5yr Number of documents:" "XXX"
printf "${fmt}" "-DEB Number of documents:" "XXX"
printf "${fmt}" "Candidate - Repository:" "${secondaryParamomsID}"
printf "${fmt}" "-BSL Number of documents:" "XXX"
printf "${fmt}" "-5yr Number of documents:" "XXX"
printf "${fmt}" "-DEB Number of documents:" "XXX"

If all of the printf calls are on consecutive lines (ie, no other code between the lines) you can use a single printf to process all strings; printf will re-apply $fmt until it exhausts the list of input strings, eg:

echo "##########################################################"
printf "${fmt}" "Creation date:"            "${today} / ${time}" \
                "performed by:"             "${USER}" \
                "Environment:"              "${firstEnv}" \
                "Reference - Repository:"   "${firstParamomsID}" \
                "-BSL Number of documents:" "XXX" \
                "-5yr Number of documents:" "XXX" \
                "-DEB Number of documents:" "XXX" \
                "Candidate - Repository:"   "${secondaryParamomsID}" \
                "-BSL Number of documents:" "XXX" \
                "-5yr Number of documents:" "XXX" \
                "-DEB Number of documents:" "XXX"

NOTE: the extra spacing (beginning of lines, between args) is optional; I've added the extra spaces to improve readability

Both of these generate:

##########################################################
Creation date:                 15-03-2022 / 15:03
performed by:                  user
Environment:                   E_MTE_04
Reference - Repository:        TEST
-BSL Number of documents:      XXX
-5yr Number of documents:      XXX
-DEB Number of documents:      XXX
Candidate - Repository:        TEST
-BSL Number of documents:      XXX
-5yr Number of documents:      XXX
-DEB Number of documents:      XXX