Align column of a output text file

Hi there,

The idea is to find the longest cellName (as string) and to use it in fprintf.

The code bellow should work 

;; find the length of longest cellName
max_strlen =0
foreach(a geGetEditCellView()~>instances
    if( max_strlen < strlen(a~>cellName) then
        max_strlen = strlen(a~>cellName)
    )
)

p=outfile("~/inst.txt")
foreach(a geGetEditCellView()~>instances

    fprintf(p strcat( sprintf(nil "\n\t%%-%ds" max_strlen) "\t%s") a~>cellName artMakeString(a~>bBox))

)

close(p)

Best Regards,

Marcel

In case you are new to programming, Marcel's answer may seem a little confusing. Essentially, you want to use the features of the format string for fprintf. Here is the simple solution to your question:

fprintf(p "%-25s %s\n" a~>cellName artMakeString(a~>bBox))

This says, print a 25 character string that is left justified (%25s would be right justified), followed by a string without a length specification. If any of your cell names happen to be longer than 25, then your columns won't line up in that case because the full string will still be printed rather than truncated. Marcel's solution determines the maximum string length and then dynamically creates the format string (the %-25s) to use the maximum string width. If a hard coded column width is good enough, then the line above should be sufficient.

Derek