columns in a text file

[red]

I have two columns of strings of various lengths.
I want the second column to be straight, so I need to find the correct
number of tabs between the two columns for each row.I don't mind
starting with a wide column with a preset number of tabs and adjusting
it statically to fit my data, so I don't need to get the length of the
longest string in the first column before I start.

Through trial and error, I have an algorithm that seems to work. There's
a pattern in there but I don't see the logic. Does anyone have a
more graceful algorithm for this, the way it should be done ?
for each row, I use this:

echo tabber($col1_value, 5);
echo col2_value;

function tabber($col1, $tabs=1){
$result=$col1;
$len=strlen($col1);
if($len>28)$tabs+=1;
if($len==22)$tabs+=1;
if($len<1)$tabs-=1;
if($len==7)$tabs-=1;
for($i=$len; $i>0; $i=$i-7)
$tabs=$tabs-1;
for($j=1; $j<$tabs; $j++)
$result.= "\t";
// $result.="_".$len."_".$tabs."_";// adds debug info to column 2
return $result;
}

red

[Geoff Berrow]

I noticed that Message-ID: <xq**********************@twister.nyc.rr.com>
from red contained the following:

Through trial and error, I have an algorithm that seems to work. There's
a pattern in there but I don't see the logic. Does anyone have a
more graceful algorithm for this, the way it should be done ?

Dunno about that, but here is a version using two arrays to simulate the
column data.

<pre>
<?php

$array1=array("123","1234567890","1234567890123456 7890","12345567678990909923232","12345678901234567 8901234567890123456789");
$array2=array("abc","1234567890","1234567890123456 7890","12345567678990909923232","dfjgvqdfjvh");

$maxwidth=50;

for($i=0;$i<count($array1);$i++){
$tab="";
$tabs =ceil(($maxwidth-strlen($array1[$i]))/8);
for($j=0;$j<$tabs;$j++){
$tab.="\t";
}
print $array1[$i].$tab.$array2[$i]."\n";
}

?>
</pre>

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
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