Alignment and string.Format

[tstephan@gmail.com]

In the docs for String.Format there is an alignment component which
allows you to pad the field to a certain number of spaces.

e.g.
FormatFName = String.Format(" First Name = |{0,10}|", myFName);

Pads myFName, width of 10 minimum

I am used to printf which allows a '*' to be used to specify a
variable to be used at runtime to specify the width of the column.

e.g.
printf("%*s", iColWidth, myFName);
Pads myFName, width of iColWidth minimum

Am I missing something or did we lose that power in C#? I would hate
to have to build my format string at runtime just to do this.

[Tom Porterfield]

Re: Alignment and string.Format

tstephan@gmail. com wrote:

In the docs for String.Format there is an alignment component which
allows you to pad the field to a certain number of spaces.
>
e.g.
FormatFName = String.Format(" First Name = |{0,10}|", myFName);
>
Pads myFName, width of 10 minimum
>
I am used to printf which allows a '*' to be used to specify a
variable to be used at runtime to specify the width of the column.
>
e.g.
printf("%*s", iColWidth, myFName);
Pads myFName, width of iColWidth minimum
>
Am I missing something or did we lose that power in C#? I would hate
to have to build my format string at runtime just to do this.
>

As far as I know, that's the only way. Ex:

string myFName = "tom";
int iColWidth = 10;
string FormatFName = string.Format(s tring.Format("F irst Name =
|{{0,{0}}}|", iColWidth), myFName);

--
Tom Porterfield

[tstephan@gmail.com]

Re: Alignment and string.Format

On Aug 9, 3:38 pm, Tom Porterfield <tppor...@mvps. orgwrote:

tstep...@gmail. com wrote:

In the docs for String.Format there is an alignment component which
allows you to pad the field to a certain number of spaces.

>

e.g.
FormatFName = String.Format(" First Name = |{0,10}|", myFName);

>

Pads myFName, width of 10 minimum

>

I am used to printf which allows a '*' to be used to specify a
variable to be used at runtime to specify the width of the column.

>

e.g.
printf("%*s", iColWidth, myFName);
Pads myFName, width of iColWidth minimum

>

Am I missing something or did we lose that power in C#? I would hate
to have to build my format string at runtime just to do this.

>
As far as I know, that's the only way. Ex:
>
string myFName = "tom";
int iColWidth = 10;
string FormatFName = string.Format(s tring.Format("F irst Name =
|{{0,{0}}}|", iColWidth), myFName);
>
--
Tom Porterfield

Thanks, that is exactly what I ended up doing - ugly code though. I
am surprised .NET lost functionality however - it would have been easy
to add this.