How to pad a String in Java?
This article shows you how to use the JDK1.5 String.format()
and Apache Common Lang
to left or right pad a String in Java.
1. String.format
By default, the String.format()
fills extra with spaces \u0020
. Normally, we use replace()
to pad with other chars, but it will replace the spaces in between the given string.
JavaPadString1.java
package com.mkyong;
public class JavaPadString1 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String input = "I Love Java!";
// I Love Java!
String result1 = String.format("%s", input);
// pad 20 chars
String result2 = String.format("|%20s|", input); // | I Love Java!|
String result3 = String.format("|%-20s|", input); // |I Love Java! |
// ********I*Love*Java!
String result4 = String.format("%20s", input).replace(" ", "*");
// I*Love*Java!********
String result5 = String.format("%-20s", input).replace(" ", "*");
System.out.println(result1);
System.out.println(result2);
System.out.println(result3);
System.out.println(result4);
System.out.println(result5);
}
}
Output
I Love Java!
| I Love Java!|
|I Love Java! |
********I*Love*Java!
I*Love*Java!********
2. Apache Common Lang
To solve the String.format
issue above, we can use Apache Common Lang
to left, right or center pad a String.
pom.xml
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
<version>3.9</version>
</dependency>
JavaPadString2.java
package com.mkyong;
import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
public class JavaPadString2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String input = "I Love Java!";
String result4 = StringUtils.leftPad(input, 20, "*");
String result5 = StringUtils.rightPad(input, 20, "*");
String result6 = StringUtils.center(input, 20, "*");
System.out.println(result4);
System.out.println(result5);
System.out.println(result6);
}
}
Output
********I Love Java!
I Love Java!********
****I Love Java!****
If you don’t want to include a library to pad a String, dig into the Apache Common Lang StringUtils.leftPad
, and copy the source code 🙂
StringUtils.java
public static String leftPad(final String str, final int size, String padStr) {
if (str == null) {
return null;
}
if (isEmpty(padStr)) {
padStr = SPACE;
}
final int padLen = padStr.length();
final int strLen = str.length();
final int pads = size - strLen;
if (pads <= 0) {
return str; // returns original String when possible
}
if (padLen == 1 && pads <= PAD_LIMIT) {
return leftPad(str, size, padStr.charAt(0));
}
if (pads == padLen) {
return padStr.concat(str);
} else if (pads < padLen) {
return padStr.substring(0, pads).concat(str);
} else {
final char[] padding = new char[pads];
final char[] padChars = padStr.toCharArray();
for (int i = 0; i < pads; i++) {
padding[i] = padChars[i % padLen];
}
return new String(padding).concat(str);
}
}
P.S Above is the source code of StringUtils.leftPad
, from Apache Common Lang.
Thank you
Thank you