C＃输出日志填充

Question

I'm writing a log parser and want to sort the output data into columns, and at the moment use this code:

string OEMVersion = string.Format("{0,-20} {1}", "OEM Version", GetXMLData(doc, "OemMarkerVersion"));
string OEMID = string.Format("{0,-20} {1}", "OEM ID", GetXMLData(doc, "OemId"));
string OEMTableID = string.Format("{0,-20} {1}", "OEM TableID", GetXMLData(doc, "OemTableId"));
string Manufacturer = string.Format("{0,-20} {1}", "Manufacturer", GetXMLData(doc, "Manufacturer"));
string Model = string.Format("{0,-20} {1}", "Model", GetXMLData(doc, "Model"));

To sort the padding out but the output only looks okay with certain fonts (Consolas, Lucinda Console etc.). How can I pad the columns with tabs rather than spaces to overcome this? string.Format() doesn't seem to allow me to do this. Thanks.

Answer 1

Just add a tab character to your formats?

string OEMVersion = string.Format("{0,-20}\t{1}", "OEM Version", GetXMLData(doc, "OemMarkerVersion"));
string OEMID = string.Format("{0,-20}\t{1}", "OEM ID", GetXMLData(doc, "OemId"));
string OEMTableID = string.Format("{0,-20}\t{1}", "OEM TableID", GetXMLData(doc, "OemTableId"));
string Manufacturer = string.Format("{0,-20}\t{1}", "Manufacturer", GetXMLData(doc, "Manufacturer"));
string Model = string.Format("{0,-20}\t{1}", "Model", GetXMLData(doc, "Model"));

You may want to keep the space padding to reduce the risk of tabs after shorter strings not going past the tabs of longer strings. Won;t be 100% accurate with proportional fonts but should be cleaner.

Answer 2

If you want to align properly your variables on a video output when a variable width font is used, then you need the help of some kind of tabular control like a ListView or a DataGridView
(I am assuming a WinForm app but the concepts are the same for other technologies).

The use of a control is preferable because the alternative is to measure the length in pixels of every string and use Graphics.DrawString to position your string parts at the exact pixel position.

Let me show an example using a ListView

// Create a new ListView control. (or use the designer)
ListView listView1 = new ListView();
// Position and size of the ListView
listView1.Bounds = new Rectangle(new Point(10,10), new Size(500,200));
// Some display feature....
listView1.View = View.Details;
listView1.FullRowSelect = true;
listView1.GridLines = false;

// Add OEM Version value
ListViewItem item = new ListViewItem("OEM Version");
item.SubItems.Add(GetXMLData(doc, "OemMarkerVersion"));
listView1.Items.Add(item);

// Add OEM ID value
item = new ListViewItem("OEM ID");
item.SubItems.Add( GetXMLData(doc, "OemId"));
listView1.Items.Add(item);

... and so on for the others values and labels ....

// Some header formatting
listView1.Columns.Add("Label", 100, HorizontalAlignment.Left);
listView1.Columns.Add("Data", 400, HorizontalAlignment.Left);

// Put the ListView on video....
yourForm.Controls.Add(listView1);