Using printf to pad spaces

Hi there - i have just a quick question regarding printf

I'm try to pad numbers into a certain size.

eg if i had a number like 118

It would look like this:
System.out.printf("%6s", "118");

Sure that puts 118 on the right side like this:
'XXX118'

But i want the statement to take in a variable pad size that will pad accordingly.
eg. it could be 3, 8 or 7 for example.

Could i use something like this: (btw the 8 is just a test value - 6 could be any number)

System.out.printf("%*s", "118", 8);

Exception in thread "main" java.util.UnknownFormatConversionException: Conversion = '*'

Unfortunately the compiler doesnt like this. In a previous post i found that i had openJDK now i am using Oracle's own jdk

I can't see why "%*s" doesnt take the 8 in for *. I read from an old post that "%*s" would work.
The output with 8 would look like:
'XXXXX118'

X in place for blanks for the benefit of this post.

Thanks,
Hamster

Read the API documentation for the Formatter class and you'll find that (sadly enough) you can't specify the width of a field with the '*' character; that's a C-ism; but nothing forbids you from constructing your own format String; e.g.

Code:

---

int width= ...;
String format= "%"+width+"s";

System.out.printf(format, "118");

---

kind regards,

Jos

That's neat - thank you. I'll remember that for next time when the default doesnt have the option. :D

Let me try that.