Rdb: Ruby-Nachbau der MWC /rdb-Werkzeuge

man/justify.man

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+.TH justify "" "" "/rdb Command"
+.PC "Left or right justify the columns of a table"
+\fBjustify [-elrct'\fIc\fB'] [ \fIcolumn ... \fB] < \fItable\fR
+.PP
+.II "table^justify"
+.II "column^justify"
+.II "justify columns"
+The command
+.B justify
+right-justifies the columns that contain only numbers, and
+left-justifies the columns that contain any nonnumeric characters.
+It also lines up floating-point numbers on their decimal points.
+.PP
+.B justify
+improves the appearance of a table.
+This makes it easier for you to read and edit.
+It also makes a column of variable-length strings into one
+length, by padding each string with spaces on the right.
+Note that the extra spaces inserted to improve a table's appearance
+could easily double or triple the size of the table.
+This increased size not only takes up disk space, but slows processing of
+.IR table .
+You must decide whether appearance or size is more important.
+.SH Options
+.B justify
+recognizes the following options:
+.IP \fB\-e\fR
+Expand the column to the next tab stop.
+Ordinarily, a column is only as wide as the widest data or column name.
+This improves the appear, but increases the size of the file.
+.PP
+The following options
+override the default justifications (left-justify character strings,
+right-justify numbers):
+.IP \fB\-l\fR
+(This is the letter ``el'', not the number one.)
+Left-justify all named columns.
+.IP \fB\-c\fR
+Center all named columns.
+.IP \fB\-r\fR
+Right justify all named columns.
+.PP
+These options are sticky, meaning that if you follow an
+.BR l ,
+.BR c ,
+or
+.R r
+option with several column names, each is treated according to
+the option.
+For example,
+.B "\-l Description Account"
+left justifies both
+.B Account
+and
+.BR Description ,
+regardless of the data each contains.
+.PP
+.IP "\fB\-t\(aa\fIc\fB\(aa\fR"
+Use the character
+.I c
+as the column separator instead of tab.
+.I c
+can be any ASCII character.
+Note, however, that once you process a table with this option,
+you can no longer use
+.B /rdb
+commands on it, because all
+.B /rdb
+commands require tabs as column separators.
+See the command
+.B trim
+for a discussion of how you can protect special characters from the shell.
+.SH Example
+One use of
+.B justify
+is to align columns.
+Variable-length character columns (like names and
+descriptions) destroy the alignment of columns.
+For example, notice how the variable-length names cause the tabs to
+break at different points in the following table:
+.DM
+Name    Credit
+----    -------
+Anderson  23.49
+Ho  145.98
+Johnson 1.15
+.DE
+.PP
+One solution is to move the variable length column to the last column:
+.DM
+	column Credit Name < credit
+.DE
+.PP
+The table now appears as follows:
+.DM
+Credit  Name    
+------- ---------------
+23.49   Anderson
+145.98  Ho
+1.15    Johnson
+.DE
+.PP
+Another solution is to use
+.B justify
+to right-pad the
+.B Name
+column, and (while we're at it) align the floating point number in the
+.BR Credit :
+.DM
+.ta 1.5i
+Name       Credit
+--------   ------
+Anderson    23.49
+Ho         145.98
+Johnson      1.15
+.DE
+.PP
+Remember that the file is now larger.
+All of those extra blank spaces can double or triple the size of your file.
+.PP
+It is easier to enter the initial data into a table without
+the padding characters.
+Then you can use
+.B justify
+to pretty up the table.
+.PP
+When using the command
+.B listtotable
+to convert a list-format file to a table,
+you may wish to use
+.B justify
+to make the resulting table readable.
+.SH "See Also"
+.B
+column,
+compresss,
+listtotable,
+trim
+.R