detect columns command

--- title: detect columns categories: | strings version: 0.104.0 strings: | Attempt to automatically split text into multiple columns. usage: | Attempt to automatically split text into multiple columns. editLink: false contributors: false ---  # `detect columns` for [strings](/commands/categories/strings.md) <div class='command-title'>Attempt to automatically split text into multiple columns.</div> ## Signature ```> detect columns {flags} ``` ## Flags - `--skip, -s {int}`: number of rows to skip before detecting - `--no-headers, -n`: don't detect headers - `--combine-columns, -c {range}`: columns to be combined; listed as a range - `--guess`: detect columns by guessing width, it may be useful if default one doesn't work ## Input/output types: | input | output | | ------ | ------ | | string | table | ## Examples use --guess if you find default algorithm not working ```nu > 'Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on none 8150224 4 8150220 1% /mnt/c' | detect columns --guess ╭───┬────────────┬───────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────┬────────────╮ │ # │ Filesystem │ 1K-blocks │ Used │ Available │ Use% │ Mounted on │ ├───┼────────────┼───────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────┼────────────┤ │ 0 │ none │ 8150224 │ 4 │ 8150220 │ 1% │ /mnt/c │ ╰───┴────────────┴───────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────┴────────────╯ ``` detect columns with no headers ```nu > 'a b c' | detect columns --no-headers ╭───┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────╮ │ # │ column0 │ column1 │ column2 │ ├───┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │ 0 │ a │ b │ c │ ╰───┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────╯ ``` ```nu > $'c1 c2 c3 c4 c5(char nl)a b c d e' | detect columns --combine-columns 0..1 ``` Splits a multi-line string into columns with headers detected ```nu > $'c1 c2 c3 c4 c5(char nl)a b c d e' | detect columns --combine-columns -2..-1 ``` Splits a multi-line string into columns with headers detected ```nu > $'c1 c2 c3 c4 c5(char nl)a b c d e' | detect columns --combine-columns 2.. ``` Parse external ls command and combine columns for datetime ```nu > ^ls -lh | detect columns --no-headers --skip 1 --combine-columns 5..7 ```

The `detect columns` command in Nushell attempts to automatically split a string into multiple columns, creating a table. It supports options like skipping rows, disabling header detection, combining columns, and using a guessing algorithm for column width detection. The command takes a string as input and outputs a table.