Convert a CSV file to fixed width

convert_to_fixed_column.py

import sublime_plugin

# { "keys": ["alt+m"], "command": "convert_to_fixed_column", "args": {"split_char": ";"}}
# https://gist.github.com/1178594
class ConvertToFixedColumnCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
    def run(self, edit, split_char=';'):
        for region in self.view.sel():
            self.view.replace(edit, region, self.align_content(self.view.substr(region), split_char))

    def align_content(self, content, split_char):
        # calculate the max width for each column
        lines = []
        widths = []
        for text in iter(content.splitlines()):
            line = text.split(split_char)
            lines.append(line)
            for (cell_idx, cell_val) in enumerate(line):
                if cell_idx >= len(widths):
                    widths.append(0)
                widths[cell_idx] = max(widths[cell_idx], len(cell_val))

        # format each cell to the max width calculated above (left padded with spaces)
        output = []
        for line in lines:
            for col_idx in range(len(line)):
                mask = '%%0%ds' % (widths[col_idx])
                line[col_idx] = mask % line[col_idx]
            output.append(split_char.join(line))
        # make sure that the trailing newline is saved (if there was one)
        if content.endswith('\n'):
            output.append('')
        return '\n'.join(output)

Nice attempt. Maybe you want to extend this one by using the whole file if there are no extensions (I made something like that here; disregard the sum(1 for reg in sel) == 1 ;) ) or to auto-left- or -right-align by checking every cell whether it's a number or not. I did something similar in AutoIt here but I doubt it'll help.

Anyway, you do not consider elements enclosed by "" which may have the separator char in it without creating a new element (well, that's pretty much the only purpose for them except for newlines). I also have an example for this here (#87).