Question

I have some data which I run through, which generates a textfile.

The data is all pulled correctly, but it doesn’t format correctly.

Right now, I am using TAB + Variable to space between each column but it is obviously made uneven as different variables differ in character length. Here is the layout:

RECORD       NAME       ADDRESS       TELEPHONE      SOMETHING         SOMETHING

... Data is here.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

String.Format is your friend here.
It’s very powerfull and gives you the function to align your output.

For example:
(EDIT: removed the txt prefix because could be confusing, now I suppose that data to be formatted is contained in string vars)

Dim result as string 
result = String.Format("{0,-10}{1,-30}{2,-30}{3,-10}{4,20}", Record, Name, Address, Telephone, Something) 

The result will be aligned to the left in a 10 space column for the first element (txtRecord) and so on for the remainders, the last element will be formatted in a column with 20 space and right aligned

If that’s not enough look at composite formatting to get other useful options