Align columns in a text file

Question

I am a Python noobie and I\'m stuck on something I know is going to be simple...

I have a plain text file that contains user login data:

dtrapani  HCPD-E         


        

Answer 1

str.ljust(width, [fillchar=" "]) (http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#str.ljust) seems like what you're after. Left justify each field when printing to the maximum length + a little bit.

For the last field to match your example, you'll want to right justify it instead using rjust.