Aligning string inside listbox c#

Question

I'm trying to write strings with spaces into a listbox, and keep them aligned.

Here is the code:

    List<String> treeNames = new List<String>();
    int counter = 1;

    treeNames.Add("Input                ");
    treeNames.Add("Output               ");
    treeNames.Add("Sequence Type        ");

   foreach (String currentData in treeNames)
   {
         listBox1.Items.Add(currentData + " - " + counter.ToString());
         counter+=1;
   }

Here's what I hope to achieve:

Input                 - 1
Output                - 2
Sequence Type         - 3

Instead, I'm getting:

Input           - 1
Output               - 2
Sequence Type                   - 3

Any ideas how can I align them?

Answer 1

You can use String.PadRight method which returns a new string that left-aligns the characters in the string by padding them with spaces on the right for a specified total length.

Let's say you have 20 character maximum length for a name:

public String stringHighscore()
{
     return name + name.PadRight(20 - name.Length) + "\t\t\t" + score.ToString();
}

If your name's length is 13, this will add 7 space characters. If your name's length is 9, this will add 11 space characters. That way all your name's lengths will equal 20 at the end.

Answer 2

foreach (String currentData in treeNames)
{
     listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format("{0, -20} {1, 10}", currentData, ("-  " + counter.ToString())));
     counter += 1;
}