How do you align text in a text file in python?

I have a plain text file that contains user login data:

dtrapani  HCPD-EPD-3687  Mon  05/13/2013    9:47:01.72
dlibby  HCPD-COS-4611  Mon  05/13/2013    9:49:34.55
lmurdoch  HCPD-SDDEB-3736  Mon  05/13/2013    9:50:38.48
lpatrick  HCPD-WIN7-015  Mon  05/13/2013    9:57:44.57
mlay  HCPD-WAR-3744  Mon  05/13/2013  10:00:07.94
eyoung  HCPD-NLCC-0645  Mon  05/13/2013  10:03:01.83

I'm trying to print the data in left- and right-aligned columns:

dtrapani  HCPD-EPD-3687    Mon  05/13/2013    9:47:01.72
dlibby    HCPD-COS-4611    Mon  05/13/2013    9:49:34.55
lmurdoch  HCPD-SDDEB-3736  Mon  05/13/2013    9:50:38.48
lpatrick  HCPD-WIN7-015    Mon  05/13/2013    9:57:44.57
mlay      HCPD-WAR-3744    Mon  05/13/2013   10:00:07.94
eyoung    HCPD-NLCC-0645   Mon  05/13/2013   10:03:01.83

How can I do this?

This is the code I have so far:

with open[r'C:\path\to\logons.txt', 'r'] as f:
    for line in f:
        data = line.strip[]
        print[data]

tdy

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asked May 28, 2013 at 16:09

I would go for the new[er] print formatter with this one [assuming your fields are consistent]. The print/format statement is pretty easy to use and can be found here. Since your data can be seen as a list, you can do a single call to format and supplying the correct formatter data you'll get your output. This has a bit more fine grained control than ljust or rjust but has the downside that you need to know that your data coming in is consistent.

with open[r'C:\path\to\logons.txt', 'r'] as f:
    for line in f:
        data = line.split[]    # Splits on whitespace
        print '{0[0]: