summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/groff.html.node/Fields.html
blob: 6e1754afacbdfc591fb09f87b46763f882bb13ab (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 7.0.3, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<!-- This manual documents GNU troff version 1.23.0.

Copyright � 1994-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License". -->
<title>Fields (The GNU Troff Manual)</title>

<meta name="description" content="Fields (The GNU Troff Manual)">
<meta name="keywords" content="Fields (The GNU Troff Manual)">
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">

<link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top">
<link href="Request-Index.html" rel="index" title="Request Index">
<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
<link href="Tabs-and-Fields.html" rel="up" title="Tabs and Fields">
<link href="Leaders.html" rel="prev" title="Leaders">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
a.copiable-link {visibility: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 0em}
div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
span.r {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal}
span:hover a.copiable-link {visibility: visible}
strong.def-name {font-family: monospace; font-weight: bold; font-size: larger}
-->
</style>


</head>

<body lang="en">
<div class="subsection-level-extent" id="Fields">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Previous: <a href="Leaders.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Leaders</a>, Up: <a href="Tabs-and-Fields.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Tabs and Fields</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Request-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<hr>
<h4 class="subsection" id="Fields-1">5.12.2 Fields</h4>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-fields"></a>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-field-delimiting-character-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-delimiting-character_002c-for-fields-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-character_002c-field-delimiting-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-field-padding-character-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-padding-character_002c-for-fields-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-character_002c-field-padding-_0028fc_0029"></a>
<p><em class="dfn">Fields</em> are a more general way of laying out tabular data.  A field
is defined as the data between a pair of <em class="dfn">delimiting characters</em>.
It contains substrings that are separated by <em class="dfn">padding characters</em>.
The width of a field is the distance on the <em class="emph">input</em> line from the
position where the field starts to the next tab stop.  A padding
character inserts an adjustable space similar to TeX&rsquo;s <code class="code">\hss</code>
command (thus it can even be negative) to make the sum of all substring
lengths plus the adjustable space equal to the field width.  If more
than one padding character is inserted, the available space is evenly
distributed among them.
</p>
<dl class="first-deffn">
<dt class="deffn" id="index-_002efc"><span class="category-def">Request: </span><span><strong class="def-name"><code class="t">.fc</code></strong> <var class="def-var-arguments">[<span class="r"><i class="slanted">delim-char</i></span> [<span class="r"><i class="slanted">padding-char</i></span>]]</var><a class="copiable-link" href='#index-_002efc'> &para;</a></span></dt>
<dd><a class="index-entry-id" id="index-fc"></a>
<p>Define a delimiting and a padding character for fields.  If the latter
is missing, the padding character defaults to a space character.  If
there is no argument at all, the field mechanism is disabled (which is
the default).  In contrast to, e.g., the tab repetition character,
delimiting and padding characters are <em class="emph">not</em> associated with the
environment (see <a class="pxref" href="Environments.html">Environments</a>).
</p>
<div class="example">
<div class="group"><pre class="example-preformatted">.fc # ^
.ta T 3i
#foo^bar^smurf#
.br
#foo^^bar^smurf#
    &rArr; foo         bar          smurf
    &rArr; foo            bar       smurf
</pre></div></div>
</dd></dl>



</div>



</body>
</html>