Question

 bid     bookname        author
 1       unix    sumitaba das
 2       java    balaguruswamy
 3       db      elmasari
 4       c       padma redddy
 5       ada     yeshwant kanetkar
 6       datastructure   padma redddy
 7       microprocessor  padma redddy

How do i format the above output for proper spaces between the columns so that it will look as follows:

bid     bookname        author
1       unix            sumitaba das
2       java            balaguruswamy
3       db              elmasari
4       c               padma redddy
5       ada             yeshwant kanetkar
6       datastructure   padma redddy
7       microprocessor  padma redddy

I am capturing the result of an SQL query into a file and displaying the file in my program.

Answer 1

Using “_” temporary in names

awk 'NF==4{$3=$3 "_" $4; $4=""} 1' foo.txt | column  -t  | tr '_' ' '