Python Output Length

If your main problem is making column widths consistent across all the lines, this python package could do the job: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/tabulate

Below you find a very simple example of a possible formatting approach. The key point is to find the largest length of each column and then use format method of the string object:

#!/usr/bin/python

import random
import string
from operator import itemgetter


def randomString(minLen = 1, maxLen = 10):
    """ Random string of length between 1 and 10 """
    l = random.randint(minLen, maxLen)
    return ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(l))

COLUMNS = 4

def randomTable():
    table = []
    for i in range(10):
        table.append( [randomString() for j in range(COLUMNS)] )
    return table

def findMaxColumnLengs(table):
    """ Returns tuple of max column lengs """
    maxLens = [0] * COLUMNS
    for l in table:
        lens = [len(s) for s in l]
        maxLens = [max(maxLens[e[0]], e[1]) for e in enumerate(lens)]

    return maxLens



if __name__ == '__main__':
    ll = randomTable()

    ml = findMaxColumnLengs(ll)

    # tuple of formatting statements, see format docs
    formatStrings = ["{:<%s}" % str(m) for m in ml ]
    fmtStr = "|".join(formatStrings)

    print "=================================="
    for l in ll:
        print l
    print "=================================="
    for l in ll:
        print fmtStr.format(*l)

This prints the initial table packed in the list of lists and the formatted output.

==================================
['2U7Q', 'DZK8Z5XT', '7ZI0W', 'A9SH3V3U']
['P7SOY3RSZ1', 'X', 'Z2W', 'KF6']
['NO8IEY9A', '4FVGQHG', 'UGMJ', 'TT02X']
['9S43YM', 'JCUT0', 'W', 'KB']
['P43T', 'QG', '0VT9OZ0W', 'PF91F']
['2TEQG0H6A6', 'A4A', '4NZERXV', '6KMV22WVP0']
['JXOT', 'AK7', 'FNKUEL', 'P59DKB8']
['BTHJ', 'XVLZZ1Q3H', 'NQM16', 'IZBAF']
['G0EF21S', 'A0G', '8K9', 'RGOJJYH2P9']
['IJ', 'SRKL8TXXI', 'R', 'PSUZRR4LR']
==================================
2U7Q      |DZK8Z5XT |7ZI0W   |A9SH3V3U  
P7SOY3RSZ1|X        |Z2W     |KF6       
NO8IEY9A  |4FVGQHG  |UGMJ    |TT02X     
9S43YM    |JCUT0    |W       |KB        
P43T      |QG       |0VT9OZ0W|PF91F     
2TEQG0H6A6|A4A      |4NZERXV |6KMV22WVP0
JXOT      |AK7      |FNKUEL  |P59DKB8   
BTHJ      |XVLZZ1Q3H|NQM16   |IZBAF     
G0EF21S   |A0G      |8K9     |RGOJJYH2P9
IJ        |SRKL8TXXI|R       |PSUZRR4LR 

The code that you used is for MySQL. The critical part is the line widths.append(max(cd[2], len(cd[0]))) where cd[2] gives the length of the longest data in that column. This works for MySQLdb.

However, you are using sqlite3, for which the value cd[2] is set to None: https://docs.python.org/2/library/sqlite3.html#sqlite3.Cursor.description

Thus, you will need to replace the following logic:

 for cd in c.description:
                widths.append(max(cd[2], len(cd[0])))
                columns.append(cd[0])

with your own. The rest of the code should be fine as long as widths is computed correctly.

The easiest way to get the widths variable correctly, would be to traverse through each row of the result and find out the max width of each column, then append it to widths. This is just some pseudo code:

for cd in c.description:
   columns.append(cd[0])  # Get column headers

widths = [0] * len(c.description)   # Initialize to number of columns.
for row in x:
  for i in range(len(row)):  # This assumes that row is an iterable, like list
    v = row[i]  # Take value of ith column
    widths[i] = max(len(v), widths[i]) # Compare length of current value with value already stored

At the end of this, widths should contain the maximum length of each column.