COLUMN(1) User Commands COLUMN(1)
NAME
column - columnate lists
SYNOPSIS
column [options] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The column utility formats its input into multiple columns. The util
support three modes:
columns are filled before rows
This is the default mode (required by backward compatibility).
rows are filled before columns
This mode is enabled by option -x, --fillrows
table 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.
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.
OPTIONS
The argument columns for --table-* options is comma separated list of
the column names as defined by --table-columns or it's column number in
order as specified by input. It's possible to mix names and numbers.
-J, --json
Use JSON output format to print the table, the option --ta-
ble-columns is required and the option --table-name is recom-
mended.
-c, --output-width width
Output is formatted to a width specified as number of charac-
ters. 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.
-d, --table-noheadings
Do not print header. This option allows to use logical column
names on command line, but keep the header hidden when print the
table.
-o, --output-separator string
Specify the columns delimiter for table output (default is two
spaces).
-s, --separator separators
Specify the possible input item delimiters (default is white-
space).
-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 op-
tion. Table output is useful for pretty-printing.
-N, --table-columns names
Specify the columns names by comma separated list of names. The
names are used for the table header or to address column in op-
tion arguments.
-R, --table-right columns
Right align text in the specified columns.
-T, --table-truncate columns
Specify columns where is allowed to truncate text when neces-
sary, otherwise very long table entries may be printed on multi-
ple lines.
-E, --table-noextreme columns
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-wrap columns
Specify columns where is possible to use multi-line cell for
long text when necessary.
-H, --table-hide columns
Don't print specified columns. The special placeholder '-' may
be used to hide all unnamed columns (see --table-columns).
-O, --table-order columns
Specify columns order on output.
-n, --table-name name
Specify the table name used for JSON output. The default is "ta-
ble".
-L, --table-empty-lines
Insert empty line to the table for each empty line on input. The
default is ignore empty lines at all.
-r, --tree column
Specify column to use tree-like output. Note that the circular
dependencies and another anomalies in child and parent relation
are silently ignored.
-i, --tree-id column
Specify column with line ID to create child-parent relation.
-p, --tree-parent column
Specify column with parent ID to create child-parent relation.
-x, --fillrows
Fill rows before filling columns.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
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,PASS,FREQ --table-right PASS,FREQ
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
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.
SEE ALSO
colrm(1), ls(1), paste(1), sort(1)
HISTORY
The column command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.
AVAILABILITY
The column command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux February 2019 COLUMN(1)