Question

I know I can use Awk, but I am on a Windows box, and I am making a function for others that may not have Awk. I also know I can write a C program, but I would love not to have something that requires compilation and maintenance for a little Vim utility I am making.

The original file might be:

THE DAY WAS LONG  THE WAY WAS FAST 

and after the transposition, it should become:

TT HH EE  DW AA YY  WW AA SS  LF OA NS GT 

Update

• Golf rules apply to selecting correct answer.
• Python fans should check out Charles Duffy’s answer below.

Answer 1

Here is a command in Vim language. So you don’t have to compile Vim with +python support.

function! s:transpose()     let maxcol = 0     let lines = getline(1, line('$'))      for line in lines         let len = len(line)         if len > maxcol              let maxcol = len         endif     endfor      let newlines = []     for col in range(0, maxcol - 1)         let newline = ''         for line in lines             let line_with_extra_spaces = printf('%-'.maxcol.'s', line)             let newline .= line_with_extra_spaces[col]         endfor         call add(newlines, newline)     endfor      1,$'_d     call setline(1, newlines) endfunction  command! TransposeBuffer call s:transpose() 

Put this in newly created .vim file inside vim/plugin dir or put this to your [._]vimrc.
Execute :TransposeBuffer to transpose current buffer