Formatting within a string

Question

Within a method, I have the following code:

s = s + (items[i] + ":" + numItems[i]+" @ "+prices[i]+" cents each.\n");

Which outputs:

Candy:      5 @ 50 cents each.
Soda:     3 @ 10 cents each.

and so on . . .

Within this line, how do I get the 5, 3, etc . . to line up with each other so that it is:

Candy:      5 @ 50 cents each.
Soda:       3 @ 10 cents each.

This is part of a toString() method, so I can't do it with a System.out.printf

See [String.format()](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#format%28java.lang.String,%20java.lang.Object...%29), works the same as `printf` but returns a String rather outputting it.. — Ray Stojonic, Nov 25 '13 at 22:33

Vallabh Patade · Answer 1 · 2013-11-25T22:46:05.860

String.format() and the Formatter classes can be used.

Following code will output something like this

 /*
 Sample Text    #
     Sample Text#
 */

Code

 public static String padRight(String s, int n) {
    return String.format("%1$-" + n + "s", s);  
 }

 public static String padLeft(String s, int n) {
     return String.format("%1$" + n + "s", s);  
 }

 public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
    System.out.println(padRight("Sample Text", 15) + "#");
    System.out.println(padLeft("Sample Text", 15) + "#");
 }

Some more snippet for formatting

 String.format("%5s", "Hi").replace(' ', '*');
 String.format("%-5s", "Bye").replace(' ', '*');
 String.format("%5s", ">5 chars").replace(' ', '*');

output:

 ***Hi
 Bye**
 >5*chars

Apart from this Apache StringUtils API has lot of methods like rightPad, leftPad for doing this. Link

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 22:34

You can use the tab character \t in your toString()

Heres an example:

System.out.println("Candy \t 5");
System.out.println("Soda \t 10");

Candy    5
Soda     10

So in your case

s = s + (items[i] + ": \t" + numItems[i]+" @ "+prices[i]+" cents each.\n");

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 22:34

0

You can maybe use the \t for inserting a tab.

answered Nov 25 '13 at 22:34

XD face me

528
1
3
11

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 25 '13 at 22:38

try this

s = s + (makeFixedLengthString(items[i]) + ":" + numItems[i]+" @ "+prices[i]+" cents each.\n");

public String makeFixedLengthString(String src){
        int len = 15;
        for(int i = len-src.length(); i < len; i++)
            src+=" ";
        return src;
}

Formatting within a string

4 Answers4