Aligning columns in output from a UNIX command

Question

I used to know of a command -- an actual command mind you, not sed/awk magic -- that formatted its input to be aligned in columns. For example, if you ran:

% echo -e "aaaaa bbbbbbb\ncc ddd"
aaaaa bbbbbbb
cc ddd

But if you ran the output through the command which I've forgotten the name of:

% echo -e "aaaaa bbbbbbb\ncc ddd" | mystery_command
aaaaa    bbbbbbb
cc       ddd

Does anyone know the name of that command?

Answer 1

It's column. Try for example echo -e "aaaaa bbbbbbb\ncc ddd" | column -t.