Question

Halo,

I have been looking for a way to generate a nicely formatted report in text file using java.

For example, I might need to print a report in the following format

A                              Monthly Report
A                               Report Name                                      Page No: 1
A Date: YYYY-MM-DD              
A
A Category                        Quantity                   Price
A -----------------               -----------------          --------------------
B Pen                             100                        $100
B Paper                           200                        $400
A
A =================                                          ====================
B Total                                                      $500
A =================                                          ====================

I have tried writing my own program, but I just feel that its a mess!!! So I am wondering if there are any existing library that I can use or is there a good way to implement it??

By the way, I have look around and found a library that are similar to what I want
https://github.com/iNamik/Java-Text-Table-Formatter

Just wondering if there are other options. Thanks for helping!!

====================================================================

So I have made a sample code that I probably will use to clean up my code

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    sb.append(String.format("%s %50s%n", "A", "Monthly Report"));
    sb.append(String.format("%s %48s%n", "A", "Report Name"));
    sb.append(String.format("%s %n", "A"));
    sb.append(String.format("%s %-20s %-20s %-20s%n", "A", "Category", "Quantity", "Price"));
    sb.append(String.format("%s %-20s %-20s %-20s%n", "A", "--------------", "--------------", "--------------"));
    sb.append(String.format("%s %-20s %-20s %-20s%n", "B", "Paper", 100, "$200"));

    System.out.println(sb.toString());

Output:

A                                     Monthly Report
A                                      Report Name
A 
A Category             Quantity             Price               
A --------------       --------------       --------------      
B Paper                100                  $200                

I am thinking how can I make the “Report Name” at the center and “Page No:” at the right without hard coding the int argument of the formatter (i.e. %50s, without 50, is it possible)

Answer 1

Just as an alternative, here is JDK based solution

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    printRow("A", "Category", "Quantity", "Price");
    printRow("A", "--------------", "--------------", "--------------");
    printRow("B", "Paper", 100, 200);
}

private static void printRow(String c0, String c1, Object c2, Object c3 ) {
    System.out.printf("%s %-20s %-20s %-20s%n", c0, c1, String.valueOf(c2), c3 instanceof Integer ? "$" + c3 : c3);
}

output

A Category             Quantity             Price               
A --------------       --------------       --------------      
B Paper                100                  $200