Java output formatting for Strings

To answer your updated question you can do

String[] lines = ("Name =              Bob\n" +
        "Age =               27\n" +
        "Occupation =        Student\n" +
        "Status =            Single").split("\n");

for (String line : lines) {
    String[] parts = line.split(" = +");
    System.out.printf("%-19s %s%n", parts[0] + " =", parts[1]);
}

prints

Name =              Bob
Age =               27
Occupation =        Student
Status =            Single

System.out.println(String.format("%-20s= %s" , "label", "content" ));
  • Where %s is a placeholder for you string.
  • The '-' makes the result left-justified.
  • 20 is the width of the first string

The output looks like this:

label               = content

As a reference I recommend Javadoc on formatter syntax


If you want a minimum of 4 characters, for instance,

System.out.println(String.format("%4d", 5));
// Results in "   5", minimum of 4 characters