How to Format the Length of A String 1

[bigz60]

Hello. I am trying to save my query results from Microsoft SQL Server to a text file. My code is working out perfectly, except I need to format the data elements.

'create the reader
        Dim reader As SqlDataReader = (sqlcommand.ExecuteReader)

        'create the builder
        Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder


        While reader.Read()

            Dim courseName As String = CStr(reader("stu_lname"))
            Debug.WriteLine(courseName)
            sb.AppendLine(reader.Item("stu_id") & " " & reader.Item("stu_ssn") & " " & reader.Item("stu_lname") & " " & reader.Item("stu_fname"))

        End While

Using writer As New IO.StreamWriter(savefiledialog1.FileName)

        writer.Write(sb.ToString)

This works fine, but for instance, I need stu_lname to be 20 spaces long, even if the data only contains 3 characters.

ex: ANDERSON PAMELA should be
ANDERSON PAMELA

I hope this makes sense, and any help will be appreciated.

 

[earthandfire]

reader.Item("stu_lname").ToString.PadRight(20)



Hope this helps

 

[bigz60]

thank you so much. That helped out a ton. I'm sorry it took so long to get back with you on that.

I have one more question, related to the first one.

How would I format an object to left fill with zeros.

Example: reader.item(stu_id) = 17

I would like to be displayed as 000017

 

[bigz60]

never mind. I figured it out.

I used:

format(reader.item("stu_id"),"000000")

 

[earthandfire]

You could also look at PadLeft. PadLeft and PadRight can take an additional parameter which is the padding character - if you don't use it, spaces are presumed.