How to format the string properly?

Question

I have a message where I print out the Name of the Entity and Its Count. I have used StringBuilder class. I have code like this:

   message.AppendFormat("Items1:    {0}",item1count).AppendLine();
   message.AppendFormat("Items2Byb:    {0}",item2count).AppendLine();
   message.AppendFormat("Items3STCDEE:    {0}",item3count).AppendLine();
   message.AppendFormat("Items4HTECEEGG:    {0}",item4count).AppendLine();
   message.AppendFormat("ItemsASSTEC:    {0}",item5count).AppendLine();

The result is coming out like this:

  Items1:         1
  Items2Byb:         3
  Items3STCDEE           5

What I want is the proper alignment, no matter what the length of the Item name is:

      Items1:            1
      Items2Byb:         3
      Items3STCDEE       5

Read this: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd260048(v=vs.110).aspx — Dmitry
– Dmitry, Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 17:15
possible duplicate of Pad left or right with string.format (not padleft or padright) with arbitrary string — Dmitry
– Dmitry, Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 17:16

merlin2011 · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-19 17:21:27Z

Here is an approach without using PadRight which assumes that the maximum length of the label on the left is 20. Naturally, you should adjust the number up to be 1 + max.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class P{
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        StringBuilder message = new StringBuilder();
        message.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}","Items1:",1).AppendLine();
        message.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}","Items2Byb:",2).AppendLine();
        message.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}","Items3STCDEE:", 3).AppendLine();
        message.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}","Items4HTECEEGG:",4).AppendLine();
        message.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}","ItemsASSTEC:",5).AppendLine();
        Console.WriteLine(message.ToString());
    }
}

Output:

Items1:             1
Items2Byb:          2
Items3STCDEE:       3
Items4HTECEEGG:     4
ItemsASSTEC:        5

I am not getting the respective results, it's just pushing the numbers to the right. I don't know why?
@c_sharp are you using exactly the format string above with no extra spaces?
@C_sharp, Also the number you need might be larger than 20, depending on how long your longest label string is.

Ilya Ivanov · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-19 17:27:44Z

For simple formatting you can use PadRight (using literal 1,3,4 for simplicity)

var message = new StringBuilder();
int width = 20;

message.Append("Items1:".PadRight(width) + 1).AppendLine();
message.Append("Items2Byb:".PadRight(width) + 3).AppendLine();
message.Append("Items3STCDEE:".PadRight(width) + 4).AppendLine();
message.Append("Items4HTECEEGG:".PadRight(width) + 5).AppendLine();
message.Append("ItemsASSTEC:".PadRight(width) + 6).AppendLine();

will print:

Items1:             1
Items2Byb:          3
Items3STCDEE:       4
Items4HTECEEGG:     5
ItemsASSTEC:        6

Or you can define custom method (to know more about {0,-20} format consider this article. Essentially it stated to pad white-spaces from right until the string occupy 20 characters long. ):

public void AddLine(StringBuilder builder, string name, int val)
{
    builder.AppendFormat("{0,-20}{1}", name, val).AppendLine();
}

and reuse it like:

AddLine(message, "Items1:", 1);
AddLine(message, "Items2Byb:", 3);
AddLine(message, "Items3STCDEE:", 4);
AddLine(message, "Items4HTECEEGG:", 5);
AddLine(message, "ItemsASSTEC:", 6);

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