#!/usr/bin/bash
shopt -s extglob

# (ripped from deyloop)

# Aligns input lines so that the occurrence of given character(s) matches up
# among the lines
#
# example: 
#
# get this_variable = whatever
# get whatever= this_thing
# get this_other_thing = whatever this is
#
# becomes
#
# get this_variable    = whatever
# get whatever         = this_thing
# get this_other_thing = whatever this is
#
# if the alignment point is the '='

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

_aln() {
  local char i max_len
  local -A lines_pre lines_post
  char="$1"
  max_len=0
  i=0

  while IFS= read -r line; do
    # characters preceding the alignment point
    lines_pre["$i"]="${line%%$char*}"

    # Trim trailing white space
    lines_pre["$i"]="${lines_pre[$i]%%*( )}"

    pre_len="${#lines_pre["$i"]}"

    if [[ $max_len < $pre_len ]]; then
      max_len="$pre_len"
    fi

    # characters proceeding the alignment point
    lines_post["$i"]="${line#*$char}"

    i=$(( i + 1 ))  
  done

  max_len=$(( max_len + 1 ))

  for (( j=0; j < i; j++ )); do
    printf "%-*s%s%s\n" "$max_len" "${lines_pre[$j]}" "$char" "${lines_post[$j]}"
  done

}

_aln "$@"