[Tutor] Print a list in columnar format

[Douglas N. Shawhan]

Whoops, but I didn't really properly answer your question of how to get 
a _list_ to print in pretty columns!

Okay, I have a file called csv.csv that has 100 rows, 10 columns wide 
with entries no greater than 3 characters long.

f=open('csv.csv', 'r')

l=f.readlines()

for line in l:
    line=line.split(',')
    row = (line[0],line[1],line[2],line[3],line[4],\
            line[5],line[6],line[7],line[8],line[9])
    print '%5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s'%(row)

Which gives me (shortened):

   132   207   943   497   892    47   436   374   746   33

  511   894    99   391   743    39   782   887   364  744

  214   490   486    57   326   221   726   388   997  997

  271   938   556   959    53   585   798   906   501   53

  893    84   900   920   897   180    34   867   575  210

    5   104   717   411   839   115   921   213   240  874

  636   748   717   830   114   759   819   342   470  153

  667   758    37   473   236   998   313   451   350  972

  749   769   689   106   589   906   387   470   677   90

  461   795   129   257   383   937   663   537   516  796

  601   951   295   996   832   984   423   686    79  313

  247   421   728   866   570   721   627   374   929  880

   95   518   561   362    11   751   945    99   341  561

  647   226   505   188   433    83   315   101   809  346

  282    30   230   986   398   668   852   895   304  930

  344   473   153    47   329   291   404   332   521  383

  677   273   950   943   948   172   399    83   421  496


for output. *Whew* sorry if the previous post was confusing.

To summarize:

#open our file
f=open('csv.csv', 'r')
#read in each line as a list member
l=f.readlines()

for line in l:
    #split each line into a list of comma seperated values
    line=line.split(',')
    #then put the values into a tuple (less confusing, hopefully)
    row = (line[0],line[1],line[2],line[3],line[4],\
            line[5],line[6],line[7],line[8],line[9])
    #and specify a five space offset for each value when it is printed!
    print '%5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s %5s'%(row)

Hope this helps.

(And here I thought you Forest Service folk spent all your time having 
fun in the woods. I hope you are doing all this coding on a laptop in a 
fire tower! :-)