Argthtjtr

I am trying to create a chart for my names, but it doesn't align correctly if the name is too short or too long. I want to know if there is way I can align the names no matter the length of the string. Below is the align method I used

public static final String FORMAT = "%st%s,%st%s%n";

public static void print() {

    for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)

        System.out.printf(FORMAT, name[i], last[i], first[i], formatName[i]);

output:

Nirvana Narayan Narayan,Nirvana Nirvana--Narayan

Kim Do  Do,Kim  Kim--Do

Kiri Wood   Wood,Kiri   Kiri--Wood

Quinn Hume  Hume,Quinn  Quinn--Hume

As described by KaeptnNemo in a comment:

Use .length, take the maximum and print the missing spaces for shorter strings.

The easiest way to print missing spaces is to use the printf method with a format string using e.g. the %-10s format to print at least 10 characters, left-justified, filling with spaces as needed.

E.g. since the longest text for the first column is 23, a format string such as "%-23s %s%n" can be used. Now just write the code to build the format string automatically:

String input = { { "Nirvana Narayan Narayan", "Nirvana Nirvana--Narayan" },

                     { "Kim Do  Do", "Kim  Kim--Do" },

                     { "Kiri Wood   Wood", "Kiri   Kiri--Wood" },

                     { "Quinn Hume  Hume", "Quinn  Quinn--Hume" } };



// Find column widths

int widths = new int[input[0].length];

for (String row : input)

    for (int i = 0; i < widths.length; i++)

        widths[i] = Math.max(widths[i], row[i].length());



// Build format string

StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();

for (int i = 0; i < widths.length - 1; i++)

    buf.append("%-").append(widths[i]).append("s ");

String fmt = buf.append("%s%n").toString();



// Print table

for (String row : input)

    System.out.printf(fmt, (Object) row);

Output

Nirvana Narayan Narayan Nirvana Nirvana--Narayan

Kim Do  Do              Kim  Kim--Do

Kiri Wood   Wood        Kiri   Kiri--Wood

Quinn Hume  Hume        Quinn  Quinn--Hume

If you like, you can even add column-separators.

// Build format string

StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder("|");

for (int i = 0; i < widths.length; i++)

    buf.append(" %-").append(widths[i]).append("s |");

String fmt = buf.append("%n").toString();

Output

| Nirvana Narayan Narayan | Nirvana Nirvana--Narayan |

| Kim Do  Do              | Kim  Kim--Do             |

| Kiri Wood   Wood        | Kiri   Kiri--Wood        |

| Quinn Hume  Hume        | Quinn  Quinn--Hume       |