Align Whitespace-Separated Text into Even Columns
Re-align text that uses irregular whitespace as a delimiter. Normalize spacing to produce perfectly even columns.
Basic Alignment
Detailed Explanation
Normalizing Irregular Whitespace
Many text files — especially hand-edited ones — use a variable number of spaces to separate columns. Over time, as values change length, the alignment drifts and the text becomes messy. The Text Column Aligner can detect multi-space boundaries and re-pad every column cleanly.
Before
server status uptime load
web-01 running 45d 0.82
db-master running 120d 1.45
cache-01 stopped 0d 0.00
api-gw running 30d 2.10
After (re-aligned)
server status uptime load
web-01 running 45d 0.82
db-master running 120d 1.45
cache-01 stopped 0d 0.00
api-gw running 30d 2.10
Choosing the Right Space Delimiter
The tool offers several space-based options:
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Space (1) | Split on every single space — use for fixed single-space delimiters |
| Spaces (2+) | Split on runs of 2 or more consecutive spaces — best for typical whitespace-aligned text |
| Spaces (3+) | Split on 3+ spaces — preserves two-word column values that have a single space |
| Spaces (4+) | Split on 4+ spaces — preserves three-word values |
Pick the threshold that matches the smallest gap between your columns. For most hand-aligned text, Spaces (2+) is the correct choice.
Use Case
A system administrator has a hand-maintained server inventory file where column alignment has drifted over months of edits and needs to restore clean formatting.