How to do Alignment within string.Format in C#?

Question

I have this line of code in C#:

return string.Format("{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7}, {8}, {9}, {10}, {11}", Name, CPSA, PostCode, Rank, Score1, Score2, Score3, Score4, Score5, Score6, Score7, Score8);

It draws its data from a text file and is output in a list box. I want to justify half of it to the left and half to the right so in dream world this:

return string.Format("align=left({0}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4},) align=right ({5}, {6}, {7}, {8}, {9}, {10}, {11})", Name, CPSA, PostCode, Rank, Score1, Score2, Score3, Score4, Score5, Score6, Score7, Score8);

I have looked around but have no clue how to do it. Can anyone please explain?

A listbox has its own idea how to align text, string.Format() doesn't count. Your question is unanswerable until you document what kind of ListBox class you use. — Hans Passant
– Hans Passant, Commented Jan 2, 2011 at 17:31
Aligned left in concern to what? Where is the text going to printed? HTML, Silverlight, console or Winforms — Richard L
– Richard L, Commented Jan 2, 2011 at 17:32
In general each character has a different width so aligning with spaces won't work unless you're forcing the listbox to use a monospaced font... you'd need to tabulate the data and for that we'd need a better example on what you're trying to achieve. — Oskar Duveborn
– Oskar Duveborn, Commented Jan 2, 2011 at 17:50

Rubens Farias · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-01 12:41:36Z

86

You can do something like this:

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0,-10} | {1,5}", "Bill", 51));

You'll get "51" aligned to right on 5 characters.

More examples here: Align String with Spaces.

For official reference, see Composite Formatting

edited Nov 1, 2023 at 12:41

answered Jan 2, 2011 at 17:31

Rubens Farias

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2 Comments

Dan Marshall Over a year ago

csharp-examples.net/align-string-with-spaces resolves to a poker site on my PC

Rubens Farias Over a year ago

@DanMarshall, you can always use the Wayback Machine, especially for old posts like this one

Wappenull · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-08 03:17:29Z

5

Additionally, to use alignment with C#6 string interpolation + formatting, for a quick reference, write it like this:

float avg = 3.48f;
float peak = 5.00f;
$"in : {avg,5:F1} K/s | peak {peak,5:F1} K"

const int Indent = 5; // In which indent part can also refer variable
$"in : {avg,Indent:F1} K/s | peak {peak,Indent:F1} K"

Will yield

"in :   3.5 K/s | peak   5.0 K"

See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/tokens/interpolated

answered Sep 8, 2022 at 3:17

Wappenull

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