Question

Here is my code (well, some of it). The question I have is, can I get the first 9 numbers to show with a leading 00 and numbers 10 – 99 with a leading 0.

I have to show all of the 360 monthly payments, but if I don’t have all month numbers at the same length, then I end up with an output file that keeps moving to the right and offsetting the look of the output.

System.out.print((x + 1) + "  ");  // the payment number
System.out.print(formatter.format(monthlyInterest) + "   ");    // round our interest rate
System.out.print(formatter.format(principleAmt) + "     ");
System.out.print(formatter.format(remainderAmt) + "     ");
System.out.println();

Results:

8              $951.23               $215.92         $198,301.22                         
9              $950.19               $216.95         $198,084.26                         
10              $949.15               $217.99         $197,866.27                         
11              $948.11               $219.04         $197,647.23  

What I want to see is:

008              $951.23               $215.92         $198,301.22                         
009              $950.19               $216.95         $198,084.26                         
010              $949.15               $217.99         $197,866.27                         
011              $948.11               $219.04         $197,647.23  

What other code do you need to see from my class that could help?

Answer 1

Since you’re using formatters for the rest of it, just use DecimalFormat:

import java.text.DecimalFormat;

DecimalFormat xFormat = new DecimalFormat("000")
System.out.print(xFormat.format(x + 1) + " ");

Alternative you could do whole job in whole line using printf:

System.out.printf("%03d %s  %s    %s    \n",  x + 1, // the payment number
formatter.format(monthlyInterest),  // round our interest rate
formatter.format(principleAmt),
formatter.format(remainderAmt));