Present information in a formatted table

[eeezeepeezee]

i have used the code:

echo -e "columnName \t columnName \t columnName \t"

but when i try to put a ls command into two columns, the output is overlapped and does not stick to its own column

[i92guboj]

i have used the code:

echo -e "columnName \t columnName \t columnName \t"

but when i try to put a ls command into two columns, the output is overlapped and does not stick to its own column

That depends on what do you exactly want. But if you need exact cursor positioning, you should look into ANSI scape sequences. For example:

echo -n -e "column1\033[1;0Hcolumn2\033[1;0Hcolumn3"

[scm]

Easiest way to get exact column positioning is to use the shell's (bash of ksh) printf formatted output.