R/utils.R

In coursekata: Packages and Functions for 'CourseKata' Courses

#' Split a character into columns for terminal output
#'
#' Split the string into `n` columns, then glue the columns together row-wise with `space_between`,
#' then glue the rows together with new line characters.
#'
#' @param strings The strings to divide into columns.
#' @param n_cols The number of columns.
#' @param space_between What to put between the columns.
#'
#' @return A string that prints to the terminal as columns.
#'
#' @noRd
to_cols <- function(strings, n_cols = 2, space_between = "       ") {
  items_per_col <- ceiling(length(strings) / n_cols)
  spacers <- rep("", items_per_col * n_cols - length(strings))
  strings <- append(strings, spacers)
  cols <- purrr::map(seq_len(n_cols), ~ strings[seq_len(items_per_col) + items_per_col * (.x - 1)])
  paste(purrr::reduce(cols, ~ paste0(.x, space_between, .y)), collapse = "\n")
}