Align

Syntax

splitby --align [selection...]

What it does

Aligns the start of each field across records by padding shorter fields with spaces.

Align optionally accepts several different modes:

• left: The default, delimiters are aligned and fields at the left of their column.
• right: Delimiters are aligned and fields at the right of their column.
• squash: Padding is placed after the delimiter, so the first letter of each field is aligned.
• none: Disables alignment (useful for overriding a default set in a config or alias).

Examples

Left (the default mode)

echo "apple|banana|cherry\na|b|c" | splitby "|" 1 2 --align
# apple|banana
# a    |b

Right

echo "apple|banana|cherry\na|b|c" | splitby "|" 1 2 --align=right
# apple|banana
#     a|     b

Squash

echo "apple,banana,cherry\na,b,c" | splitby "," 1 2 --align=squash
# apple,banana
# a,    b

Gotchas

• Only works in per-line mode with field mode.
• Because it must do a first-pass to work out column widths before processing, this flag can limit efficiency in large datasets.