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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?

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3 Answers 3

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Try this.

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

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

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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.

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5 Comments

is there some way to fix the width of the %20s so that the next text starts at a fixed with?
Can you clarify? If you want a fixed amount of spaces between the two elements, you can just insert the requisite number of spaces in the formatting field like so: "%-20s________%-15d%n" (using underscores since the comment field strips excess whitespace). As it is, the left element will reside in a region 20 chars wide and be left-justified (due to the "-").
i think the issue with my code is that the %-15 starts at the end of the word printed before it. so if the word apple is printed.. and then the count is printed 15 spaces after that. on the next line a word like "the" is printed..and the count fifteen spaces after that. the issue is that the word "apple" is longer than the word "the" so the count os shifted and not lined up one under each other. if that makes sense.
The formatting String as you have written it should do what you are describing. If I were to guess, you may be sending output to a console where the font is not fixed-width, in which case the output is correctly formatted, but because the font width is variable, the output appears ragged. I've edited my response with a test case which I have verified to give the correct output.
Great! Glad to help. Please don't forget to "accept" the response... New here and the rep pts are greatly appreciated.
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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.

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