Python utf-8, howto align printout

Question

I have a array containing japanese caracters as well as \"normal\". How do I align the printout of these?

#!/usr/bin/python
# coding=utf-8

a1=[\'する\', \'します         


        

Answer 1

Using the unicodedata.east_asian_width function, keep track of which characters are narrow and wide when computing the length of the string.

#!/usr/bin/python
# coding=utf-8

import sys
import codecs
import unicodedata

out = codecs.getwriter('utf-8')(sys.stdout)

def width(string):
    return sum(1+(unicodedata.east_asian_width(c) in "WF")
        for c in string)

a1=[u'する', u'します', u'trazan', u'した', u'しました']
a2=[u'dipsy', u'laa-laa', u'banarne', u'po', u'tinky winky']

for i,j in zip(a1,a2):
    out.write('%s %s: %s\n' % (i, ' '*(12-width(i)), j))

Outputs:

する          : dipsy
します        : laa-laa
trazan        : banarne
した          : po
しました      : tinky winky

It doesn’t look right in some web browser fonts, but in a terminal window they line up properly.