How to set shift in String.format dynamically?

Question

Is it possible to set shift nor by default but programmatically? I mean if I have a code

System.out.format("%-d%d", shift, value);

it returns java.util.MissingFormatWidthException. Instead of error I want to set the shift dynamically.

How can I do that?

Hovercraft Full Of Eels · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-05T22:58:26.150

1

If I understand you correctly, you can create your format String on the fly, but it has to be a two-step process:

String formatString = "%-" + shift + "d";
System.out.format(formatString, value);

or

String formatString = String.format("%%-%sd", shift); // %% for the single %
System.out.format(formatString, value);

or as Christian notes

System.out.format("%-" + shift + "d", value);

edited Jan 05 '15 at 22:58

answered Jan 05 '15 at 22:55

1

Could it be `System.out.format("%-" + shift + "d", value);`? – Christian Tapia Jan 05 '15 at 22:57
@Christian: yes. edited – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Jan 05 '15 at 22:57
I get `Exception in thread "main" java.util.MissingFormatWidthException: -0d` – barbara Jan 05 '15 at 22:58
@barbara: it won't work for `0`. you'll need an if block for this. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Jan 05 '15 at 22:59
@barbara: I didn't know that 0 was a possibility. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Jan 05 '15 at 23:01

1 Answers1