'\" t
.\" Sccsid @(#)tbl.1b	1.7 (gritter) 9/9/06
.\" Derived from tbl(1), Unix 7th edition:
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.TH TBL 1B "9/9/06" "Heirloom Documentation Tools" "BSD System Compatibility"
.SH NAME
tbl \- (BSD) format tables for nroff or troff
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fB/usr/ucb/tbl\fR
[\fB\-g\fR]
[\fB\-me\fR|\fB\-mm\fR|\fB\-ms\fR]
[\fB\-TX\fR]
[\fIfiles\fR] ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Tbl
is a preprocessor for formatting tables for
.I nroff
or
.IR troff .
The input files are copied to the standard output,
except for lines between .TS and .TE
command lines, which are assumed to describe tables
and reformatted.
With the
.I \-mx
options, the respective macro packages
are copied to the beginning of the output.
Details are given in the reference manual.
.PP
As an example, letting \\t represent a tab (which should
be typed as a genuine tab)
the input
.IP ""
\&.TS
.nf
c s s
c c s
c c c
l n n.
Household Population
Town\\tHouseholds
\\tNumber\\tSize
Bedminster\\t789\\t3.26
Bernards Twp.\\t3087\\t3.74
Bernardsville\\t2018\\t3.30
Bound Brook\\t3425\\t3.04
Branchburg\\t1644\\t3.49
Bridgewater\\t7897\\t3.81
Far Hills\\t240\\t3.19
\&.TE
.LP
.fi
yields
.ne 10
.IP " "
.TS
c s s
c c s
c c c
l n n.
Household Population
Town	Households
	Number	Size
Bedminster	789	3.26
Bernards Twp.	3087	3.74
Bernardsville	2018	3.30
Bound Brook	3425	3.04
Branchburg	1644	3.49
Bridgewater	7897	3.81
Far Hills	240	3.19
.TE
.PP
If no arguments are given,
.I tbl
reads the standard input,
so it may be used as a filter.
When it is used with
.I eqn
or
.I neqn
the
.I tbl
command should be first, to minimize the volume
of data passed through
pipes.
.PP
.I tbl
normally uses line drawing commands with repeated
underline and box rule characters
(i.e.
.I troff
\el and \eL).
With the
.B \-g
option,
graphic drawing commands (i.e. \eD) are used instead.
.PP
The
.B \-TX
option causes
.I tbl
not to produce fractional line motions.
.SH SEE ALSO
troff(1B), eqn(1B)
.br
M. E. Lesk,
.I TBL.