columnize.php

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php
function stdin_stream()
{
    while ($line = fgets(STDIN)) {
        yield $line;
    }
}

$columnsizes = [];

foreach (stdin_stream() as $line) {
    // do something with the contents coming in from STDIN
    $parts = explode("\t", trim($line));

    foreach ($parts as $column => $part) {
        $slen = strlen($part);

        if (!isset($columnsizes[$column])) {
            $columnsizes[$column] = 8;
        }

        $columnsizes[$column] = max(1 + ceil($slen / 8) * 8, $columnsizes[$column]);

        echo $part . str_repeat(" ", $columnsizes[$column] - $slen);
    }

    echo "\n";
}