How to use String.format() in Java to replicate tab “\t”?

Question

I\'m printing data line by line and want it to be organized like a table.

I initially used firstName + \", \" + lastName + \"\\t\" + phoneNumber.

<

Answer 1

consider using a negative number for your length specifier: %-20s. For example:

   public static void main(String[] args) {
     String[] firstNames = {"Pete", "Jon", "Fred"};
     String[] lastNames = {"Klein", "Jones", "Flinstone"};
     String phoneNumber = "555-123-4567";

      for (int i = 0; i < firstNames.length; i++) {
        String foo = String.format("%-20s %s", lastNames[i] + ", " + 
             firstNames[i], phoneNumber);
        System.out.println(foo);
      }   
   }

returns

Klein, Pete          555-123-4567
Jones, Jon           555-123-4567
Flinstone, Fred      555-123-4567

Answer 2

Try putting the width into second placeholder with - sign for right padding as:

  String.format("%s, %-20s %s", firstName, lastName, phoneNumber)

This will give the specified width to the second argument(last name) with right padding and phone number will start after the specified width string only.

EDIT: Demo:

String firstName = "John";
String lastName = "Smith";
String phoneNumber = "1234456677";
System.out.println(String.format("%s, %-20s %s",firstName, lastName, phoneNumber));

prints:

John, Smith               1234456677

Answer 3

The only alternative is loop the names list, calculate the maximum length of the String, and add whitespaces as needed after every name to ensure that all the numbers begin at the same column.

Using tabs has the disavantage that you cannot know a priori how many whitespace are equivalent to a tab, since it is dependent of the editor.