Printing Columns

If you have a large list of items you need to output, you can use the print.columns() helper. Pass an array of simple values to be printed, and columns will be created on the screen based on the widest item and the terminal width.

print.columns( directoryList( resolvePath( /lib ) ) )

You can also pass a UDF as the second argument which will be called for each item in the array and can return a string with additional formatting text for the print helper to format that item. The closure receives the following arguments:

  • item (string) being printed

  • row number

  • column number

print.columns(
    directoryList( resolvePath( /lib ) ),
    (item,row,col)=>item.endsWith('.txt') ? 'blue' : 'green'
)

This example would print out a list of files in the directory, coloring all text files blue, and the rest green.

This helper is the same as the printColumns command with the differences being the command accepts no formatting closure and will convert list data into an array or will accept a JSON array directly.

printColumns data="1,2,3,4,5" delimiter=","

# or ...
ls --simple | printColumns

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