c# Tab a string the right way

Question

so...

I am creating a program, and at some point it writes:

sitename.com : 1
longersitename : 1
short.com : 1

and I want to write it like:

sitename.com   : 1
longersitename : 1
short.com      : 1

I tried adding \t, the problem is it will then make somethin like:

sitename.com      : 1
longersitename      : 1
short.com      : 1

How can I do this? Thanks!

Edit: Everyting is in the same string, code:

Console.WriteLine(allResults.Groups[1].Value.Replace("has: ", " : ").TrimEnd(Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray()).TrimStart(Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray()));

The " : " part is the part that needs to tab.

Edit: this is the string: (this is 1 string, with \n\r)

Unknown Site : 1  URL found.
Google Search : 3  URL found.
Youtube : 5  URL found.
Core  : 1  URL found.
Console : 88  URL found.

Find longest string and use [`string.PadRight()`](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.padright(v=vs.110).aspx) (to pad with spaces). — Sinatr, Apr 18 '16 at 14:13
@juharr I can not really use spaces, because I don't know which sitenames are going to write (I get the list from an API, based on a search). — wtm, Apr 18 '16 at 14:13
Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4784032/formatting-a-c-sharp-string-with-identical-spacing-in-between-values — diiN__________, Apr 18 '16 at 14:14

Dmitry Bychenko · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18T14:46:14.643

I suggest using Linq as well as regular expressions to obtain values:

Split By new line
Split by ':', in order to get rid of URL found. and obtain the number, use regular expression
Format out name and value into single line, specify lengths and alignments
Finally, combine all the lines back into a single string.

Implementation:

  String source = 
    "Unknown Site : 1  URL found.\r\n"+
    "Google Search : 3  URL found.\r\n" +
    "Youtube: 5  URL found.\r\n" +
    "Core: 1  URL found.\r\n" +
    "Console: 88  URL found.";

  //TODO: put actual lengths (instead of 15 and 3) in the formatting
  var target = source
    .Split(new String[] { Environment.NewLine }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
    .Select(line => line.Split(':'))
    .Select(items => String.Format("{0,-15}: {1,3}", 
       items[0].Trim(), 
       Regex.Match(items[1], "[0-9]+").Value));

  String result = String.Join(Environment.NewLine, target);

  ...

  // Unknown Site   :   1
  // Google Search  :   3
  // Youtube        :   5
  // Core           :   1
  // Console        :  88
  Console.Write(result);

@Matthew Dotcom: you're welcome! Next time, please, start with *initials* :) — Dmitry Bychenko, Apr 18 '16 at 15:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 14:15

0

Using a monospaced font printing the string. The best way to align strings is using String.Format method

You will have to determine the longest site's name for this.

answered Apr 18 '16 at 14:15

Petr Vávro

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I just edditted my question, everyting is in one string. – wtm Apr 18 '16 at 14:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 17:08

Here's a quick sample that takes some key/value pairs and formats them with the sort of spacing you're describing:

var valuesOfVaryingLengths = "key: value, longer key: value, even much longer key: value";
var pairs = valuesOfVaryingLengths.Split(',')
    .Where(pair => pair.Contains(":")).ToArray()
    .Select(pair => pair.Split(':')).ToList();
var longest = pairs
    .Select(pair => pair[0]).Max(key => key.Length);
var padded = pairs.Select(
    pair => string.Concat(pair[0].Trim().PadRight(longest), ": ", pair[1].Trim()));
padded.ToList().ForEach(Console.WriteLine);

c# Tab a string the right way

3 Answers3