Lining up output in linux cli

Question

I have a tool which outputs four columns of data with a space between each. However, the data items are variable length, and it's hard to read what's going on.

Is there a way I can line the output up using linux utilities to tabulate it for easy reading?

Answer 1

try this:

cat $DataFile | column -t

in debian column is in package bsdmainutils. and of course you can also use column -t $DataFile