sprintf type string formatting in java

[hargate]

I am trying to display information on a users xterm in table form. To do this in c/c++ I would format the strings that I output to the screen with sprintf/printf.

How do I specify the field width in the format string for a MessageFormat object like sprintf?

Object[] fields = {"field1", "field2", "field3"};
System.out.println( new MessageFormat( "{0} {1} {2}", fields);

 

[hargate]

Just to let people know what I have discovered:

You cannot accomplish printf style formatting with the
the MessageFormat object. There is a class available
on the java.sun.com site called PrintfFormat that supports printf style formatting.