column

Format text into aligned columns for readable tabular output.

low risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain
$ 
What it does

column formats text into evenly-spaced columns, making tabular data human-readable. The -t flag auto-detects and aligns fields. Transforms messy whitespace-separated output into a table without writing awk.

Common flags
FlagMeaning
-t --tableAuto-align into table format
-s --separatorSet input field separator
-o --output-separatorSet output column separator
Examples
cat /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1,3,7 | column -t -s:Show users/uid/shell as aligned table · explain & risk-check →
mount | column -tFormat mount output as aligned table · explain & risk-check →
echo -e 'Name Age\nAlice 30\nBob 25' | column -tSimple table from stdin · explain & risk-check →
Pro tip

Pipe any space-separated output through `column -t` for instant readability — especially useful for custom monitoring scripts that emit structured data.

Related
awk cut sort
Open the full explainer →More in Text Processing

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man column for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.