INTRODUCTION TO OBJECTS AND INPUT/OUTPUT - Java Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design - page 135

output starting at column 7 (see the fifth line of output). Because only five columns are needed
to output the value of rate and the output is right justified, column 7 is (also) left blank.

In a format specifier, if the number of columns in the option width is less than the number
of columns required to output the value of the expression, the output is expanded to
the required number of columns. That is, the output is not truncated. For example, the
output of the statement:

3

System.out.printf("%2d", 8756);

is:

8756

even though only two columns are specified to output 8756 , which requires four columns.

Example 3-6 further illustrates the use of the method printf .

EXAMPLE 3-6

The following program illustrates how to format output using the printf method and
the format specifier:
public class FormattingOutputWithprintf
{

public static void main(String[] args)
{

int num = 763; //Line 1

double x = 658.75; //Line 2

String str = "Java Program."; //Line 3

System.out.println("1234567890123456789"
+ "01234567890"); //Line 4

System.out.printf("%5d%7.2f%15s%n",
num, x, str); //Line 5

System.out.printf("%15s%6d%9.2f%n",
str, num, x); //Line 6

System.out.printf("%8.2f%7d%15s%n",
x, num, str); //Line 7

System.out.printf("num = %5d%n", num); //Line 8

System.out.printf("x = %10.2f%n", x); //Line 9

System.out.printf("str = %15s%n", str); //Line 10

System.out.printf("%10s%7d%n",
"Program No.", 4);

//Line 11

}

}