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Beginner Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

hi I'm trying to capture stuff and format it... how can I make something that's 2 characters into 2 characters with 3 spaces, 3 characters to 3 characters with 2 spaces etc.?

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:48 pm

Two ways - using %format or a construct like %concat(%repeat(" ",5-%len(%1)),%1) which will make a string 5 characters in width. Change the number 5 to whatever number you want.

Beginner Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

thanks

how would I make it add the spaces on to the other side?

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:31 pm

For right-align, move the concated space to the other side:

%concat(%1,%repeat(" ",5-%len(%1)))

For centre-align, it's a bit more complex. You'll want to have a repeat on both sides, with the length divided by 2. But if the length is odd, you'll need to add or remove spaces. If, say, %1 was 7 characters long, then %len(%1)/2 will be 3. If you were aiming for a 20-character string, you'd take away 3*2 from that to get 14, but then add 7 and end with 21 characters. Perhaps something like this will work:

%concat(%if(%mod(%len(%1),2)," "),%repeat(" ",10-%round(%float(%len(%1))/2),%1,%repeat(" ",10-%round(%float(%len(%1))/2))

This creates a centre-aligned 20-character string (or it should, anyway). It works by rounding up the length/2 - in the example above, this would give 4 rather than 3. 20-4*2 is 12, and then 7 is added to get 19. This is what the %if(%mod(%1,2)," ") is for - if %1's length is odd, this result will be 1 and an extra space will be added. If the length is even, the result is 0 and no space is added. It'd be simpler if there were ceiling and floor functions, but there's not, so it isn't.