NAME

column - columnate lists SYNOPSIS

column [-tx? [-c columns? [-s sep? [file ...? DESCRIPTION

The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. Rows are filled before columns. Input is taken from file operands, or, by default, from the standard input. Empty lines are ignored.

The options are as follows

• c Output is formatted for a display columns wide.

• sSpecify a set of characters to be used to delimitcolumns for the -t option.-tDetermine the number of columns the input containsand create a table. Columns are delimited withwhitespace, by default, or with the characters sup-plied using the -s option. Useful for pretty-print-ing displays.-xFill columns before filling rows.DIAGNOSTICS

ENVIRONMENT

COLUMNS

The environment variable COLUMNS is used to deter- mine the size of the screen if no other information is available.

EXAMPLES

(printf

printf

ls -l | sed 1d) | column -t SEE ALSO

colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1) HISTORY

The column command appeared in 4.3 BSD

• Reno.

BSD June 6, 1993 1