Column Command

TLDR: column is a linux cli that lets you output stuff in columns

Discovery

Stumbled across a video on YouTube

Explanation

the column command will take output and let you put it into columnar to make it easier to read. It also has a table command -t to display it as a table.

You can also output as json with the -J command

Example

You can run something like

cat /etc/passwd | column -t -s ":" -N USER,PW,UID,GUID,X,HOME,SHELL -H PW,X 

This will output a table of the users on a system with their

• Username
• User ID
• Group ID
• Home Directory
• Shell on login

Or you can output json like this

cat /etc/passwd | column -J -N User,PW,UID,GUID,X,HOME,SHELL -H PW,X

Why It Matters

This command can really help to make data more readable when interacting with it on a system. It can also allow you to output json from a system to be used with a REST API, or something similar

Source

I learned it from this video