Thread: Setting field width System.out.printf

How do I set the fields with with a variable and not a constant? This is what I want:

System.out.printf("%xs\tPlayer Points\tComputer Points\t  Winner\n", "Name");

Here x is an integer variable.

You could create the format string as, itself, a formatted string!

int x = 42;
String fmt = String.format("%%%ds\tPlayer Points\tComputer Points\t  Winner\n", x);
System.out.printf(fmt, "Name");

Notice how %% is used to represent a literal % character in the format. Details in the Formatter API docs.

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The width argument allows an alternative to your use of the \t character whose exact behaviour may or may not be what you want or expect. In particular it may not do the same thing in all circumstances (console, text component, web page etc).

Also the %n specifier provides an alternative to the \n character and will do the right thing to produce a newline whatever the OS.

That was helpful! Thanks! :-)

You're welcome.