Text output to a file with tabs

Hi,
I am writing text lines to a file but I am having trouble aligning the
colums using TAB
or space.
Exemple:

LAYER = 140 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = "CONTINUOUS"
LAYER = 800 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = "CONTINUOUS"

but if a layer name is longer it will start the tab and get the columns out
of alingment

LAYER = BOUNDARY COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = "WATER"

How to tell the program to start at a particular space number?

Odie

 

Cool Jesus,

But I never connected my database with Excell but I know if can be
accomplished with startapp.
Do you have any sample?

tIA

Odie

 

No direct way to assign (column#). You will have to 'pad' each item with spaces (chr 32) for a finite length, append next item (padded), etc. Then output the (strcat item1 item2).
You will also need a Font in your text Editor that is pretty much a 'block' type font - with width about the same. Problem is that a "i" is much thinner than a "w". Gets jagged looking.
Another approach?
Write to a file.csv (comma seperated) like:
(setq Output (strcat (chr 34) item1 (chr 34) "," (chr 34) item2 (chr 34) ","))
(write-line outputfile Output).
Then, when done, double click to take it into Excel.
Bob

 

See if this helps you. The "\t" is for tab sapce.

(setq temp (open "TEST.txt" "w"))
(princ (strcat "\nCol1" "\t" "Col2") temp)
(princ (strcat "\nCol1" "\t" "Col2" "\t" "Col3") temp)
(close temp)

--
Ken Alexander
Acad2000
Windows2000 Prof.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them."
--Albert Einstein

 

Ken,
Very nice.
I learn.
Bob

 

It seems that would be easier to control the colunm aligment within Lisp.
I thought about the "padding" of each between two colunms by the following
expression:

(strcat lay_name
(repeat spacing (chr 32))
(itoa (cdr (assoc 62 lay)))
(repeat spacing (chr 32))
(cdr (assoc 6 lay))
)

but it is flawed...why?

Odie

 

Ken,


The approach you suggested works fine just like the one I started with, but
if the layer name
passes the tab mark it will add the requested number of tabs producing the
following:

LAYER = 830 COLOR = 64 LINETYPE = DEP
LAYER = 840 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 850 COLOR = 42 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 860 COLOR = -46 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 870 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 965 COLOR = 2 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 970 COLOR = 33 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = 975 COLOR = 33 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = Boundary COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = BREAKLINES COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = BRK2 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS
LAYER = BRK3 COLOR = 7 LINETYPE = CONTINUOUS


Odie

 

Using spaces is not a good way to create columns. As Bob said,
charactors have different widths. To make sure you have enough tabs,
you will have to evaluate the lengths of your strings before
strcating. If the longest string is, say, over 5 charactors then put
two tab
spaces in.

--
Ken Alexander
Acad2000
Windows2000 Prof.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them."
--Albert Einstein

 

See my previous post.
--
Ken Alexander
Acad2000
Windows2000 Prof.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them."
--Albert Einstein

 

I agree with Ken.
To check the length:
(setq LS (strlen col1))
(if (< LS 5)
(setq col1 (strcat col1 "\t"))
(setq col1 (strcat col1 "\t" "\t"))
)
continued..
Bob

 

I finally "got" what your delma was. I put this together, probably
a little rough, but it works in notepad where the tab spacing is 8
charactors. You would think there is an easier way, but my brain got
stuck heading in this direction. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

(defun C:write_columns ()
(setq col1list '("975" "Boundary" "Breaklines")
col2list '("33" "33" "7")
col3list '("continuous" "continuous" "DEP")
col1len (apply 'max (mapcar 'strlen col1list))
col2len (apply 'max (mapcar 'strlen col2list)))
(setq temp (open "TEST.txt" "w"))
(repeat (length col1list)
(setq col1val (car col1list)
col2val (car col2list)
col3val (car col3list))
(setq col1vallen (strlen col1val)
col2vallen (strlen col2val)
col3vallen (strlen col3val))
(setq tabx1 (+ 8 (* 8 (fix (/ col1len 8))))
tabx2 (+ 8 (* 8 (fix (/ col2len 8)))))
(if (member (- tabx1 (strlen col1val)) '(8 16 24 32 40 48 56
64))
(setq tabs1 -1)
(setq tabs1 0)
)
(if (member (- tabx2 (strlen col2val)) '(8 16 24 32 40 48 56
64))
(setq tabs2 -1)
(setq tabs2 0)
)
(princ "\n" temp)
(princ col1val temp)
(repeat (+ tabs1 (1+ (fix (/ (- tabx1 (strlen col1val)) 8))))
(princ "\t" temp))
(princ col2val temp)
(repeat (+ tabs2 (1+ (fix (/ (- tabx2 (strlen col2val)) 8))))
(princ "\t" temp))
(princ col3val temp)
(setq col1list (cdr col1list)
col2list (cdr col2list)
col3list (cdr col3list))
)
(close temp)
(princ)
)
--
Ken Alexander
Acad2000
Windows2000 Prof.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them."
--Albert Einstein

 

Thanks Ken,

I think you nailed it!!!
I ran it and it seemed to be the idea I was after

It was a good push ahead.

Have a great evening!


Odie