Python: print in two columns

Question

I'm trying to print a string with two fixed columns. For example, I'd like to be able to print:

abc       xyz
abcde     xyz
a         xyz

What is the correct way to format the output string when printing to achieve this? Also, how is this done before version 2.6 and after version 2.6?

AlokThakur · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-06T03:06:25.823

16

You can use format and mention fix spaces between columns

'{0:10}  {1}'.format(s1, s2)

Old Style formatting

'%-10s' '%s' % (s1,s2)

edited Feb 06 '16 at 03:06

answered Feb 06 '16 at 02:59

AlokThakur

Old Style - '%-10s' '%s' % (s1,s2), But not sure how old it is – AlokThakur Feb 06 '16 at 03:05
Nice! That works perfectly. Why does the second string receive the adjustment of the formatting on the first string? I would think it should be `"%s %-10s"`, but that's wrong. – Victor Brunell Feb 06 '16 at 03:08
What I understand '%-10s' means left aligned with max 10 spaces at right. I refer https://pyformat.info/ – AlokThakur Feb 06 '16 at 03:14
1

this works great and is also clean and simple! thanks! – redbeam_ Mar 21 '18 at 15:05
How would I print multiline text to columns? – Jonathan May 19 '19 at 05:00

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '16 at 02:59

2

This should work for all lengths of the elements (assuming they are strings. This assumes your data is in two seperate lists first and second.

maxlen = len(max(first, key=len))

for i,j in zip(first, second):
    print "%s\t%s" % (i.ljust(maxlen, " "), j)

This works in Python 2.x, before and after 2.6.

answered Feb 06 '16 at 02:59

L3viathan

Nice solution. This still wouldn't allow me to place the second column exactly 20 spaces from the start of the string each time though, correct? – Victor Brunell Feb 06 '16 at 03:03
Sure, by ignoring the first line and replacing `maxlen` with `20`. – L3viathan Feb 06 '16 at 03:03

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 14 '18 at 22:38

1

Prior to >=python3.6

s1='albha'
s2='beta'

f'{s1}{s2:>10}'

#output
'albha      beta'

answered Feb 14 '18 at 22:38

Roushan

BenJ · Answer 4 · 2016-02-06T02:54:44.077

0

There are a number of ways of doing this and it depends on how the data is stored. Assumining your data is stored in equal length lists:

for i in range(len(list1)):
    print(“%3i\t%3i” %(list1[i]，list2[i]))

This will work in all versions of python. The 3i ensures the output has a field width of 3 characters

edited Feb 06 '16 at 02:54

answered Feb 06 '16 at 02:51

BenJ

1

Wouldn't that produce a misaligned output? The second column wouldn't be in a fixed position if the first `%d` changes length. It would just be one tab off from the last character. – Victor Brunell Feb 06 '16 at 02:53
You are right I have corrected the answer to show padding to 3 characters – BenJ Feb 06 '16 at 02:55
Is there some way to produce the second `%i` 20 spaces from the start of the string? That is, not relative to the first `%i`, but relative to the start of the string itself? – Victor Brunell Feb 06 '16 at 02:58
I think you want the .format method https://docs.python.org/2/library/string.html for use on strings. – BenJ Feb 06 '16 at 03:03
Yeah, I was just hoping to find some method for doing this before version 2.6. I'm working on a server that only supports version 2.4. – Victor Brunell Feb 06 '16 at 03:05
Ahh thr python documentation doesnt go back that far to 2.4. But you could use str.ljust http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5676646/fill-out-a-python-string-with-spaces and on each iteration calculate the length of the left hand field and pad the second column the right length for consistency – BenJ Feb 06 '16 at 03:14

4 Answers4