# tabulate Align data in columns using heuristics to find suitable column sizes that minimize the amount of wasted space. Useful for files like access logs where some lines have columns that are much larger than than the rest of the lines. ``` $ cat input.txt aaa bbb ccc a b c aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bb cc aaaaa b ccccc aaa bb ccc aaaa bb cccc aaa bb ccc aaa bb ccc aaaaa b ccccc aaa bb ccc aaa bb ccc aaaaa b ccccc $ tabulate ...] Truncate data that does not fit in a column. Takes an optional list of columns that should be truncated. If no LIST is given all columns are truncated -c, --compress-cols Number between 0.0 and 1.0 that controls how much columns are compressed. Set to 0 to disable column compression, i.e. columns are sized to fit the largest value [default: 1.0] -n, --estimate-count Estimate column sizes from the first N lines. The value 0 means all lines [default: 1000] -i, --include ... Select which columns to include in the output -x, --exclude ... Select which columns should be excluded from the output. This option takes precedence over --include -d, --delimiter Use characters of DELIM as column delimiters [default: " \t"] -o, --output-delimiter Specify the delimiter to use to separate columns in the output [default: " "] -s, --strict Parse columns as strictly being delimited by a single delimiter --online Print lines during column size estimation phase --column-info Print information about the columns -h, --help Print help information -V, --version Print version information LIST should be a comma-separated list of ranges. Each range should be of one of the following forms: N N'th column, starting at 1 N- from N'th column to end of line N-M from N'th to M'th column -M from first to M'th column ```