column - columnate lists

Availability

       The column command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

util-linux 2.40.2                                  2024-05-28                                          COLUMN(1)

Bugs

       Version 2.23 changed the -s option to be non-greedy, for example:

           printf "a:b:c\n1::3\n" | column -t -s ':'

       Old output:

           a  b  c
           1  3

       New output (since util-linux 2.23):

           a  b  c
           1     3

       Historical versions of this tool indicated that "rows are filled before columns" by default, and that the
       -x option reverses this. This wording did not reflect the actual behavior, and it has since been
       corrected (see above). Other implementations of column may continue to use the older documentation, but
       the behavior should be identical in any case.

Description

       The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. The util support three modes:

       columnsarefilledbeforerows
           This is the default mode (required by backward compatibility).

       rowsarefilledbeforecolumns
           This mode is enabled by option -x,--fillrowstable
           Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table. This mode is enabled by option
           -t,--table and columns formatting is possible to modify by --table-* options. Use this mode if not
           sure. The output is aligned to the terminal width in interactive mode and the 80 columns in
           non-interactive mode (see --output-width for more details).

       Input is taken from file, or otherwise from standard input. Empty lines are ignored and all invalid
       multibyte sequences are encoded by x<hex> convention.

Environment

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

Examples

       Print fstab with header line and align number to the right:

           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE,OPTIONS,FREQ,PASS --table-right FREQ,PASS

       Print fstab and hide unnamed columns:

           sed 's/#.*//' /etc/fstab | column --table --table-columns SOURCE,TARGET,TYPE --table-hide -

       Print a tree:

           echo -e '1 0 A\n2 1 AA\n3 1 AB\n4 2 AAA\n5 2 AAB' | column --tree-id 1 --tree-parent 2 --tree 3
           1  0  A
           2  1  |-AA
           4  2  | |-AAA
           5  2  | `-AAB
           3  1  `-AB

History

       The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

Name

       column - columnate lists

Options

The argument columns for --table-* options is a comma separated list of the column names as defined by
--table-columns, or names defined by --table-column or it’s column number in order as specified by input.
It’s possible to mix names and numbers. The special placeholder '0' (e.g. -R0) may be used to specify all
columns and '-1' (e.g. -R -1) to specify the last visible column. It’s possible to use ranges like '1-5'
when addressing columns by numbers.

-J,--json
Use JSON output format to print the table, the option --table-columns is required and the option
--table-name is recommended.

-c,--output-widthwidth
Output is formatted to a width specified as number of characters. The original name of this option is
--columns; this name is deprecated since v2.30. Note that input longer than width is not truncated by
default. The default is a terminal width and the 80 columns in non-interactive mode. The column
headers are never truncated.

The placeholder "unlimited" (or 0) is possible to use to not restrict output width. This is
recommended for example when output to the files rather than on terminal.

-d,--table-noheadings
Do not print header. This option allows the use of logical column names on the command line, but
keeps the header hidden when printing the table.

-o,--output-separatorstring
Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two spaces).

-s,--separatorseparators
Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is whitespace).

-t,--table
Determine the number of columns the input contains and create a table. Columns are delimited with
whitespace, by default, or with the characters supplied using the --output-separator option. Table
output is useful for pretty-printing.

-C,--table-columnproperties
Define one column by comma separated list of column attributes. This option can be used more than
once, every use defines just one column. The properties replace some of --table- options. For example
--table-columnname=FOO,right define one column where text is aligned to right. The option is
mutually exclusive to --table-columns.

The currently supported attributes are:

name=string
Specifies column name.

trunc
The column text can be truncated when necessary. The same as --table-truncate.

right
Right align text in the specified columns. The same as --table-right.

width=number
Specifies column width. The width is used as a hint only. The width is strictly followed only
when strictwidth attribute is used too.

strictwidth
Strictly follow column width= setting.

noextreme
Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long cells. See --table-noextreme for more
details.

wrap
Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for long text when necessary. See
--table-wrap.

hide
Don’t print specified columns. See --table-hide.

json=type
Define column type for JSON output, Supported are string, number and boolean.

-N,--table-columnsnames
Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The names are used for the table header
or to address column in option argument. See also --table-column.

-l,--table-columns-limitnumber
Specify maximal number of the input columns. The last column will contain all remaining line data if
the limit is smaller than the number of the columns in the input data.

-R,--table-rightcolumns
Right align text in the specified columns.

-T,--table-truncatecolumns
Specify columns where text can be truncated when necessary, otherwise very long table entries may be
printed on multiple lines.

-E,--table-noextremecolumns
Specify columns where is possible to ignore unusually long (longer than average) cells when calculate
column width. The option has impact to the width calculation and table formatting, but the printed
text is not affected.

The option is used for the last visible column by default.

-e,--table-header-repeat
Print header line for each page.

-W,--table-wrapcolumns
Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for long text when necessary.

-H,--table-hidecolumns
Don’t print specified columns. The special placeholder '-' may be used to hide all unnamed columns
(see --table-columns).

-O,--table-ordercolumns
Specify columns order on output.

-n,--table-namename
Specify the table name used for JSON output. The default is "table".

-m,--table-maxout
Fill all available space on output.

-L,--keep-empty-lines
Preserve whitespace-only lines in the input. The default is ignore empty lines at all. This option’s
original name was --table-empty-lines but is now deprecated because it gives the false impression
that the option only applies to table mode.

-r,--treecolumn
Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular dependencies and other anomalies in
child and parent relation are silently ignored.

-i,--tree-idcolumn
Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.

-p,--tree-parentcolumn
Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.

-x,--fillrows
Fill rows before filling columns.

-h, --help
Display help text and exit.

-V, --version
Print version and exit.

Reporting Bugs

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

Synopsis

column [options] [file ...]

return