Efficient Columnar Alignment in vim(1)

Problem: You have some text similar to below and want to align COLUMN B
Solution: Using vim(1) you can do this in 7 easy steps.

############################################################

LINE	COLUMN A	COLUMN B
1	asd     def
2	asd   def ghi
3	boo		blech
4	11111              		asd    xx
5	---	asd		asd			asd

############################################################

How to align COLUMN B efficiently using vim?

Sep 1. :let tabs = "^I^I"
	NB: ^I is TAB (2x TAB is enough in this case)
Step 2. Position cursor on line 1, start of COLUMN A
Step 3. Ctrl-V, 4, Down-Arrow
	NB: Selects starting column for 5 lines
Step 4. :s/\%V[^[:space:]]\{1,\}\zs\ze/\=tabs/

NB: One more step required to get to aligned COLUMN B

############################################################

Now the text appears as below:

LINE	COLUMN A	COLUMN B
1	asd		     def
2	asd		   def ghi
3	boo				blech
4	11111		              		asd    xx
5	---			asd		asd			asd

############################################################

Final steps:

Step 5. Position cursor on line 1, column under "C" in "COLUMN B"
Step 6. Ctrl-V, 4, Down-Arrow
	NB: Selects starting column for 5 lines
Step 7. :s/\%V[[:space:]]*//

############################################################

Now the text appears as below:

LINE	COLUMN A	COLUMN B
1	asd		def
2	asd		def ghi
3	boo		blech
4	11111		asd    xx
5	---		asd		asd			asd

############################################################

Wunderbar!