Formatting Output

[Mensanator]

On Jun 2, 2:43 pm, Doug Morse <mo... at edoug.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 12:42:12 -0700 (PDT), Mensanator <mensana... at aol.com> wrote:
> >  On Jun 2, 3:38 am, Chris <cwi... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Jun 2, 9:34 am, "victor.hera... at gmail.com"
>
> > > <victor.hera... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Hi,
>
> > > > i am building a little script and i want to output a series of columns
> > > > more or less like this:
>
> > > > 1  5  6
> > > > 2  2  8
> > > > 2  9  5
> > ...
>
> I have a related question:
>
> Does Python have (or can emulate) the formatted output capability found in
> Perl?
>
> For example, all I have to do to get nicely formatted (i.e., aligned) output
> is provide values for special STDOUT variables (i.e., STDOUT_TOP, STDOUT,
> STDOUT_BOTTOM, etc.), exemplified by:
>
>   format STDOUT_TOP =
>   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------­---
>   ~
>   .
>
>   format STDOUT =
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>   $res->{'full_name'},  $res->{'phone_1'},         $res->{'phone_1_type'}
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~
>   $res->{'address_1a'},                $res->{'address_2a'}
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~
>   $res->{'address_1b'},                $res->{'address_2b'}
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~
>   $res->{'address_1c'},                $res->{'address_2c'}
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~
>   $city_1                              $city_2
>   @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~
>   $res->{'email_1'},                   $res->{'email_2'}
>   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------­---
>   ~
>   .
>
> Then, all I have to do is populate my $res object/hash as desired -- in this
> example simple the results of a SQL query -- and lastly just call the "write"
> function:
>
>   write;
>
> and Perl will produce very nicely formatted results.  This is useful not only
> for producing human readable output, but also fixed-column-width data files,
> etc.  I'd love to learn the Pythonistic way of doing the same thing.
>
> Thanks!
> Doug

I didn't know you could do that in perl. Too bad I quit using it
when I switched to Python.

OTOH, I can do similar formatting directly in SQL.

In Access, I create a query with this SQL:

SELECT
"------------------------------------------------------------" &
Chr(10) &
Format$(SampleEventCode,"!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@") &
Format$
(SampleEventDescr,"@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@") &
Chr(10) &
Format$(EventSortOrder,"!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@") &
Format$("From: " & Format$(DateFrom,"YYYY/MM/
DD"),"@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@") &
Chr(10) &
Format$(SampleEventReportLabel,"!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@") &
Format$("To: " & Format$(DateTo,"YYYY/MM/
DD"),"@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@")
AS Expr1
FROM tblSampleEvent;

Then I simply call it from Python. (I could call with the SQL code
instead of invoking the Access query, but the OBDC interface can't
process this particular SQL statement, tries to put brackets around
the format templates, so best render unto Access the things that
belong to Access.)

# code
import dbi
import odbc
con = odbc.odbc("BPWR")
cursor = con.cursor()
cursor.execute("""
SELECT * FROM SQLFormatTest;
""")
results = cursor.fetchall()
for i in results:
  for j in i:
    print j
# /code

which prints

------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q1                                 First Quarter of 2000
2000100                                     From: 2000/01/01
1st-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/03/31
------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q2                                Second Quarter of 2000
2000200                                     From: 2000/04/01
2nd-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/06/30
------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q3                                 Third Quarter of 2000
2000300                                     From: 2000/07/01
3rd-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/09/30
------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q4                                Fourth Quarter of 2000
2000400                                     From: 2000/10/01
4th-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/12/31
------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q1LF                      Low Flow First Quarter of 2000
2000105                                     From: 2000/01/01
1st-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/03/31
------------------------------------------------------------
2000Q2LOD                 LOD borings Second Quarter of 2000
2000206                                     From: 2000/04/01
2nd-Qtr 2000                                  To: 2000/06/30
.
.
.