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

Here's a solution in python 3.4 that automatically detects terminal width and takes it into account. Tested on Linux and Mac.

def column_print(list_to_print, column_width=40):
    import os
    term_height, term_width = os.popen('stty size', 'r').read().split()
    total_columns = int(term_width) // column_width
    total_rows = len(list_to_print) // total_columns
    # ceil
    total_rows = total_rows + 1 if len(list_to_print) % total_columns != 0 else total_rows

    format_string = "".join(["{%d:<%ds}" % (c, column_width) \
            for c in range(total_columns)])
    for row in range(total_rows):
        column_items = []
        for column in range(total_columns):
            # top-down order
            list_index = row + column*total_rows
            # left-right order
            #list_index = row*total_columns + column
            if list_index < len(list_to_print):
                column_items.append(list_to_print[list_index])
            else:
                column_items.append("")
        print(format_string.format(*column_items))