Question

Using Python 2.4, how do I print a list in a nice tabular format?

My list is in the below format.

mylist=[(('VAL1', 'VAL2', 'VAL3', 'VAL4', 'VAL5', 'VAL6'), AGGREGATE_VALUE)]

I have tried pprint, but it does not print the result in a tabular format.

EDIT : I would like to see the output in the below format:

---

VAL1        VAL2     VAL3    VAL4    VAL5    VAL6        AGGREGATE_VALUE

---

This table, should account for variable item lengths and still print with proper indentation.

Answer 1

mylist = [ ( ('12', '47', '4', '574862', '58', '7856'), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE1'),
           ( ('2', '75', '757', '8233', '838', '47775272785'), 'AGGREG2'),
           ( ('4144', '78', '78965', '778', '78578', '2'), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE3')]

longg = dict.fromkeys((0,1,2,3,4,5,6),0)

for tu,x in mylist:
    for i,el in enumerate(tu):
        longg[i] = max(longg[i],len(str(el)))
    longg[6] = max(longg[6],len(str(x)))

fofo = '  '.join('%'+str(longg[i])+'s' for i in xrange(0,7))
print '\n'.join(fofo % (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) for (a,b,c,d,e,f),g in mylist)

result

  12  47      4  574862     58         7856  AGGREGATE_VALUE1
   2  75    757    8233    838  47775272785           AGGREG2
4144  78  78965     778  78578            2  AGGREGATE_VALUE3

Don’t know if this fills your need

EDIT 1

Using string formatting with modulo operator (%) to print in a constant length, ‘%6s’ right-justifies in a constant length of 6, and ‘%-6s’ left-justifies in a constant length of 6.

You’ll find precisions here

But there is no sense to specify a constant length to print something at the end of a string, because it’s somewhat naturally-left-justified in this case.
Then :

longg = dict.fromkeys((0,1,2,3,4,5,),0)

for tu,x in mylist:
    for i,el in enumerate(tu):
        longg[i] = max(longg[i],len(str(el)))

fofo = '  '.join('%'+str(longg[i])+'s' for i in xrange(0,6)) + '  %s'
print '\n'.join(fofo % (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) for (a,b,c,d,e,f),g in mylist)

EDIT 2

mylist = [ ( (12, 47, 4, 574862, 58, 7856), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE1'),
           ( (2, 75, 757, 8233, 838, 47775272785), 'AGGREG2'),
           ( (4144, 78, 78965, 778, 78578, 2), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE3')]

longg = dict.fromkeys((0,1,2,3,4,5),0)

for tu,_ in mylist:
    longg.update(( i, max(longg[i],len(str(el))) ) for i,el in enumerate(tu))

fofo = '  '.join('%%%ss' % longg[i] for i in xrange(0,6)) + '  %s'
print '\n'.join(fofo % (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) for (a,b,c,d,e,f),g in mylist)

EDIT 3

mylist = [ ( (12, 47, 4, 574862, 58, 7856), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE1'),
           ( (2, 75, 757, 8233, 838, 47775272785), 'AGGREG2'),
           ( (4144, 78, 78965, 778, 78578, 2), 'AGGREGATE_VALUE3')]

header = ('Price1','Price2','reference','XYD','code','resp','AGGREG values')

longg = dict(zip((0,1,2,3,4,5,6),(len(str(x)) for x in header)))

for tu,x in mylist:
    longg.update(( i, max(longg[i],len(str(el))) ) for i,el in enumerate(tu))
    longg[6] = max(longg[6],len(str(x)))
fofo = ' | '.join('%%-%ss' % longg[i] for i in xrange(0,7))

print '\n'.join((fofo % header,
                 '-|-'.join( longg[i]*'-' for i in xrange(7)),
                 '\n'.join(fofo % (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) for (a,b,c,d,e,f),g in mylist)))

result

Price1 | Price2 | reference | XYD    | code  | resp        | AGGREG values   
-------|--------|-----------|--------|-------|-------------|-----------------
12     | 47     | 4         | 574862 | 58    | 7856        | AGGREGATE_VALUE1
2      | 75     | 757       | 8233   | 838   | 47775272785 | AGGREG2         
4144   | 78     | 78965     | 778    | 78578 | 2           | AGGREGATE_VALUE3

Note that this kind of formatting would be much easier with the string’s method format() introduced in Python 2.6