def mdir(name=None): if name != None: lis = dir(name); else: lis = dir() lis.sort(); lis = zip(lis[0::3],lis[1::3],lis[2::3]) in_ = lambda x: [a.ljust(25) for a in x] out = lambda lis: ['\t'.join(in_(x)) for x in lis] print '\n'.join(out(lis))