.NET Format a string with fixed spaces

user_72491 0
Viewed 280372

Does the .NET String.Format method allow placement of a string at a fixed position within a fixed length string.

"           String Goes Here"
"     String Goes Here      "
"String Goes Here           "

How is this done using .NET?

Edit - I have tried Format/PadLeft/PadRight to death. They do not work. I don't know why. I ended up writing my own function to do this.

Edit - I made a mistake and used a colon instead of a comma in the format specifier. Should be "{0,20}".

Thanks for all of the excellent and correct answers.

string .net
10 Answers

This will give you exactly the strings that you asked for:

string s = "String goes here";
string lineAlignedRight  = String.Format("{0,27}", s);
string lineAlignedCenter = String.Format("{0,-27}",
    String.Format("{0," + ((27 + s.Length) / 2).ToString() +  "}", s));
string lineAlignedLeft   = String.Format("{0,-27}", s);
Guffa_690830

The first and the last, at least, are possible using the following syntax:

String.Format("{0,20}", "String goes here");
String.Format("{0,-20}", "String goes here");
user_19680

You've been shown PadLeft and PadRight. This will fill in the missing PadCenter.

public static class StringUtils
{
    public static string PadCenter(this string s, int width, char c)
    {
        if (s == null || width <= s.Length) return s;

        int padding = width - s.Length;
        return s.PadLeft(s.Length + padding / 2, c).PadRight(width, c);
    }
}

Note to self: don't forget to update own CV: "One day, I even fixed Joel Coehoorn's code!" ;-D -Serge

Joel_Coehoorn_30430

try this:

"String goes here".PadLeft(20,' ');
"String goes here".PadRight(20,' ');

for the center get the length of the string and do padleft and padright with the necessary characters

int len = "String goes here".Length;
int whites = len /2;
"String goes here".PadRight(len + whites,' ').PadLeft(len + whites,' ');
Jedi_Master_Spooky_11540

it seems like you want something like this, that will place you string at a fixed point in a string of constant length:

Dim totallength As Integer = 100
Dim leftbuffer as Integer = 5
Dim mystring As String = "string goes here"
Dim Formatted_String as String = mystring.PadLeft(leftbuffer + mystring.Length, "-") + String.Empty.PadRight(totallength - (mystring.Length + leftbuffer), "-")

note that this will have problems if mystring.length + leftbuffer exceeds totallength

user_721090 
/// <summary>
/// Returns a string With count chars Left or Right value
/// </summary>
/// <param name="val"></param>
/// <param name="count"></param>
/// <param name="space"></param>
/// <param name="right"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
 public static string Formating(object val, int count, char space = ' ', bool right = false)
{
    var value = val.ToString();
    for (int i = 0; i < count - value.Length; i++) value = right ? value + space : space + value;
    return value;
}
user_16252080
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