# Back on the List - Two questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 2, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828 "2008-08-02T20:13:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/1 "2008-08-02T20:13:39Z")
It’s been a while but it feels good to be back. I have a quick question for the group: Given the following: content = [ [“something special a”, “ok cool a”, “tahsnk a”], [“something specccccccccial a”, “ok cooooool a”, “tahsnk a”] ] content.each {|i| puts i.join("\t") } #something special a ok cool a tahsnk a #something specccccccccial a ok cooooool a tahsnk a I would like to print this out as such: something special a ok cool a tahsnk a something specccccccccial a ok cooooool a tahsnk a I remember seeing a module or example like this somewhere… Any ideas? I was thinking it was pretty print at first but after looking, I guess not? ---
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/2 "2008-08-02T22:24:49Z")
Nice… that was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/3 "2008-08-02T20:22:29Z")
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 2:12 PM, list. rb [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > content.each {|i| > thinking it was pretty print at first but after looking, I guess not? > Well, it’s a bit like killing a mosquito with a bazooka, but you could > use Ruport for this: > > require “rubygems” > > =\> true > > require “ruport” > > =\> true > > content = [ > > ?\> [“something special a”, “ok coola”, “tahsnk a”], > > ?\> [“something speccccccccccccial a”, “ok cooool a”, “tahsnk a”] > > ] > > =\> [[“something special a”, “ok coola”, “tahsnk a”], [“something > > speccccccccccccial a”, “ok cooool a”, “tahsnk a”]] > > puts Table(:data =\> content) > > ±--------------------------------------------------------+ > > | something special a | ok coola | tahsnk a | > > | something speccccccccccccial a | ok cooool a | tahsnk a | > > ±--------------------------------------------------------+ But if you don’t want the decorations, you’d need to tweak things. Feel free to take a look at the (not exactly pretty) source and re-use whatever code you’d like: > -greg ---
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/4 "2008-08-02T23:51:24Z")
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Shadowfirebird [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > content.each do |i| > i.each{|j| printf "%30s ", j} > puts > end If you combine this with a function that first figures out an appropriate column width based on the size of the strings in that column, this simple approach would be much more lightweight than what we do in Ruport, for sure (but not quite as full featured). But usually, dynamically determining column width is a must-have unless you can make a lot of assumptions about the data you’re displaying. For example, showing telephone numbers with fixed width hard coded columns would be fine, but email addresses, probably not so clear cut. -greg ---
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/5 "2008-08-03T00:03:46Z")
Cool, didn’t know this example with ruport 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-on-the-list-two-questions/144828/6 "2008-08-02T23:01:42Z")
content.each do |i| i.each{|j| printf "%30s ", j} puts end Or is that too simplistic? On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 9:23 PM, list. rb [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > I would like to print this out as such: > > > > > > > require “rubygems” > > > > ±--------------------------------------------------------+ > > > > -greg > > > > – > > Killer Ruby PDF Generation named after a magnificent sea creature: > > [GitHub - practicingruby/prawn: THIS REPOSITORY HAS MOVED TO:](http://github.com/sandal/prawn) | Non-tech stuff at: > > [http://metametta.blogspot.com](http://metametta.blogspot.com) – Me, I imagine places that I have never seen / The colored lights in fountains, blue and green / And I imagine places that I will never go / Behind these clouds that hang here dark and low But it’s there when I’m holding you / There when I’m sleeping too / There when there’s nothing left of me / Hanging out behind the burned-out factories / Out of reach but leading me / Into the beautiful sea