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(groff)Fields

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Fields
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   "Fields" are a more general way of laying out tabular data.  A field
is defined as the data between a pair of "delimiting characters".  It
contains substrings which are separated by "padding characters".  The
width of a field is the distance on the _input_ line from the position
where the field starts to the next tab stop.  A padding character
inserts stretchable space similar to TeX's `\hss' command (thus it can
even be negative) to make the sum of all substring lengths plus the
stretchable space equal to the field width.  If more than one padding
character is inserted, the available space is evenly distributed among
them.

 - Request: .fc [delim-char [padding-char]]
     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).  Note that contrary to e.g. the
     tab repetition character, delimiting and padding characters are
     not associated to the current environment (Note: Environments).

     Example:


          .fc # ^
          .ta T 3i
          #foo^bar^smurf#
          .br
          #foo^^bar^smurf#

     and here the result:


          foo         bar          smurf
          foo            bar       smurf