The contents of the print array in variable-width columns

Question

I want to change my code so that the column expands to accommodate the data.

Below is an example of a broken line

+========+=========+===============+=============+=============+ | Record | Cluster | Current Build | Current Use | Environment | +--------+---------+---------------+-------------+-------------+ | 3 | 1 | v44 | v44 Live (currently - new company cluster)| PROD | +--------+---------+---------------+-------------+-------------+ 

Here is the code (kludgy) that I use

 sub printData { if (@_) { # print the data grid top border printf ("%10s%10s%15s%14s%14s",'+'.('=' x 8).'+',('=' x 9).'+',('=' x 15).'+',('=' x 13).'+',('=' x 13).'+'); print "\n"; # print the data grid column titles printf ("%-9s%-10s%-16s%-14s%-15s",'| Record ','| Cluster ','| Current Build ','| Current Use ','| Environment |'); print "\n"; # print out each row of data foreach my $rows (@_) { # print the data grid demarcation border printf ("%10s%10s%15s%14s%14s",'+'.('-' x 8).'+',('-' x 9).'+',('-' x 15).'+',('-' x 13).'+',('-' x 13).'+'); print "\n"; # print each data cell printf ("%-9s",'| '.$rows->{'Record ID#'}); printf ("%-10s",'| '.$rows->{'Cluster'}); printf ("%-16s",'| '.$rows->{'Current Build'}); printf ("%-14s",'| '.$rows->{'Current Use'}); # calculate the length of the last column my $length = length($rows->{'Environment'}); # calculate how many spaces to add to the last column # the title of this column uses 15 characters (including '|' and spaces) # we already used three of those spaces for 2 '|' characters and 1 leading space # so 15 - 3 = 12 # then subtract the length of the return string from 12 my $spaces = 12 - $length; # we print the last data cell plus the padding spaces calculated above printf ("%-15s",'| '.$rows->{'Environment'}.(' ' x $spaces).'|'); print "\n"; } # we print the bottom data grid border printf ("%10s%10s%15s%14s%14s",'+'.('=' x 8).'+',('=' x 9).'+',('=' x 15).'+',('=' x 13).'+',('=' x 13).'+'); print "\n"; } else { if ($debug) { print "trouble with printData subroutine\n"; } return 0; } } 

Answer 1

Text :: Table will adjust the width of the columns to fit the data.

Answer 2

You must first scan the data to get the maximum width of each field, and then build the format strings.

Answer 3

Text :: SimpleTable :: AutoWidth is extremely simple and less distorted than Text :: Table.

Answer 4

I am not familiar with any of the modules already proposed, therefore, if they do not work as you would like, I would do as suggested by Mouse Food and preview the data to get the maximum width in each column. These maximum widths will then be used in the format string for output. If possible, perhaps it would be more efficient to get this maximum value when building the array, rather than repeating it twice at the end.

The code below iterates over the entire array to find the maximum column lengths, but it should be easy to adapt if you calculate it along the way. In addition, I wrote this with a cuff and did not test it, but it should give you this idea.

 my %maximums = { "Record ID#" => 0, "Cluster" => 0, "Current Build" => 0, "Current Use" => 0 }; # calculate the maximum length of the values in each column foreach my $row (@_) { foreach my $col (keys %maximums) { my $col_length = length($row->{$col}); $maximums{key} = $col_length if ($col_length > $maximums{$col}); } } # Generate a format string using the maximum column widths. Other format strings # may be generated in this loop for the other parts of the table. Alternatively # you could probably transform the one string and replace the characters in it. my $row_format = "|"; foreach my $col (keys %maximums) { $row_format .= " %-",$maximums{$key},"s |"; } $row_format .= "\n"; # Print your headers and borders here, using the other format strings that you # would calculate above (where $row_format is generated). # Print each row in the table foreach my $row (@_) { printf($row_format, $row->{"Record ID#"}, $row->{"Cluster"}, $row->{"Current Build"}, $row->{"Current Use"}); }