Thread: String formatting alignment

I am trying format marry string so they align in the same way e.g.

This is how I would like them to be formatted:

  Cricket                $100
  Football               $100
  Basketball             $1
The total Cost is        $201

This is the method I have tried though I get mix results when different inputs are given, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

This is what it mostly ends up like:

 Cricket                 $100
 Football               $100
 Basketball                 $1
The total Cost is        $201

I have tried experimenting by having different right-align in code for total cost though nearly always get wayward results, though it has worked a couple of times on different values of variable length where right-align and left-align were different.
This is the code I have tried:

System.out.printf("%-15s %15s %n", " Cricket", "$100");
System.out.printf("%-15s %15s %n", " Football", "$100");
System.out.printf("%-15s %15s %n", " Basketball", "$1");
System.out.printf("%-15s %15s %n", "The total Cost is", "$201");

I am not bothered about how much spacing there is in between, I just want to align the $ signs as I have managed to align the sports. Where am I going wrong?

I would use StringBuilder's insert(int offset, String str) to force a column. I don't use printf much so I can't say what is going on.

public void printToColumn(String item, String cost) {
    int itemColumn = 1;
    int priceColumn = 15;
 
    StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
    b.append("                                    ");  
    b.insert(itemColumn, item);
    b.insert(priceColumn, cost);
    System.out.println(b.toString());
}

Thanks guys, I was wondering what made you choose -24% of all numbers you could use?
I got printf to work for terminal window which is what I wanted though not for JTextArea which still prints it wayward, I'll try String Builder for JTextArea.

You didn't mention a JTextArea. Font spacing and kerning are important in this situation so use a Monospace font like Courier. See SWT - OS agnostic way to get monospaced font for a platform independent solution.

I am passing the correct alignment to JTextArea as I've done a print verification though JTextArea is still not aligning correctly, is this a trait of JText Area?

This code sorted the problem.

new Font(Font.MONOSPACED, Font.PLAIN, 12);