Python: Multi-column printing of a list of strings

col_print.py

def col_print(lines, term_width=80, indent=0, pad=2):
  n_lines = len(lines)
  if n_lines == 0:
    return

  col_width = max(len(line) for line in lines)
  n_cols = int((term_width + pad - indent)/(col_width + pad))
  n_cols = min(n_lines, max(1, n_cols))

  col_len = int(n_lines/n_cols) + (0 if n_lines % n_cols == 0 else 1)
  if (n_cols - 1) * col_len >= n_lines:
    n_cols -= 1

  cols = [lines[i*col_len : i*col_len + col_len] for i in range(n_cols)]

  rows = list(zip(*cols))
  rows_missed = zip(*[col[len(rows):] for col in cols[:-1]])
  rows.extend(rows_missed)

  for row in rows:
    print(" "*indent + (" "*pad).join(line.ljust(col_width) for line in row))

You could add console size detection so that it is a bit more dynamic.

def col_print(lines, term_width=None, indent=0, pad=2):
    if not term_width:
        size = shutil.get_terminal_size((80, 20))
        term_width = size.columns
    ...