How to print a list more nicely?

Question

This is similar to How to print a list in Python “nicely”, but I would like to print the list even more nicely -- without the brackets and apostrophes and commas, and even b

Answer 1

How about something like this?

def strlistToColumns( strl, maxWidth, spacing=4 ):

longest = max([len(s) for s in strl])
width = longest+spacing

# compute numCols s.t. (numCols-1)*(longest+spacing)+longest < maxWidth
numCols = 1 + (maxWidth-longest)//width
C = range(numCols)

# If len(strl) does not have a multiple of numCols, pad it with empty strings
strl += [""]*(len(strl) % numCols)
numRows = len(strl)/numCols
colString = ''

for r in range(numRows):
    colString += "".join(["{"+str(c)+":"+str(width)+"}" \
        for c in C]+["\n"]).format(*(strl[numCols*r+c] \
        for c in C))

return colString 


if __name__ == '__main__':

fruits = ['apple', 'banana', 'cantaloupe', 'durian', 'elderberry',         \
          'fig', 'grapefruit', 'honeydew', 'indonesian lime', 'jackfruit', \
          'kiwi', 'lychee', 'mango', 'orange', 'pomegranate', 'quince',    \
          'raspberry', 'tangerine', 'ugli fruit', 'watermelon', 'xigua',
          'yangmei', 'zinfandel grape']

cols = strlistToColumns( fruits, 80 )

print(cols)

Output

apple              banana             cantaloupe         durian
elderberry         fig                grapefruit         honeydew
indonesian lime    jackfruit          kiwi               lychee
mango              orange             pomegranate        quince
raspberry          tangerine          ugli fruit         watermelon
xigua              yangmei            zinfandel grape