UNIX Command Line

One of the common use of awk is to process input files by formatting them, and then output the results in the chosen form.

Input file:
$ cat testresult.txt
NBS Module Status
54670 Reg P
56783 Reg F
56784 Smk P
56744 Reg F

Required output:

NBS          Module     Status
54670        Reg        P
56783        Reg        F
56784        Smk        P
56744        Reg        F

i.e. 1st column<12 spaces>2nd column<10 spaces>3rd column<10 spaces>

Awk solution:

$ awk '
BEGIN {
  format=split("12 10 10", arr)
}
{
   for(i=1;i<=NF; i++)
      printf("%-*s%c", arr[i], $i, (i==NF) ? RS : OFS)
}' testresult.txt

And if we need to change the field separator from space to two tabs, here is a way:

$ awk 'BEGIN{OFS="\t\t"} {$1=$1; print $0}' testresult.txt

NBS             Module          Status
54670           Reg             P
56783           Reg             F
56784           Smk             P
56744           Reg             F