CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaformattingoutputstring-formatting
StillLearningToCode
StillLearningToCode

Reputation: 2461

Print formatting

I am trying to print a two column output of words and word count. I seem to be having an issue with the formatting. Here is my line of code for the printf:

    public void inOrderTraverseTree(Node focusNode){
    if(focusNode != null){
        inOrderTraverseTree(focusNode.lChild);
        //focusNode.visit();
        System.out.printf("%-15s %15d", focusNode.key, focusNode.count);
        inOrderTraverseTree(focusNode.rChild);
    }
}

After looking at my output again, it seems that my issue is that the second column follows the length of the word in the first column. Is there a way to set a width for an output so that the count does not depend on the end of the word?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 439

Answers (3)

Mathias
Mathias

Reputation: 51

You may also be missing a trailing "%n" (carriage return) and having the first element of the second line run into the second element of the first (assuming this is being called in a loop).

System.out.printf("%-20s %-15d%n", string1, string2);

Otherwise, like another answer points out, the second element should be an integer, not a String (at least based on your formatting).

Here's an example:

String[] text = new String[] { "apple", "the" };
int[] data = new int[] { 123, 4567 };
for (int i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
  System.out.printf("%-20s %-15d%n", text[i], data[i]);
}

The output is:

apple                123            
the                  4567

Obviously if the word you want to stick into the first column is wider than 20 chars it will push the second column over by that many chars.

Upvotes: 1

Logemann
Logemann

Reputation: 2953

Actually the pattern "%-20s %-15d" is fine, as long as you provide a number as second argument. I wonder how you got this output because providing a String to a "%-15d" generates a runtime error.

Upvotes: 0

peter.petrov
peter.petrov

Reputation: 39437

Try this.

System.out.printf("%20s%15d", "123451234512345", 10000);

Also in your code this string2 needs to be int actually, not string.

Upvotes: 2

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