Creating an evenly spaced table

Question

I have written this code so I know it works but I always seem to have difficulties creating a table so my numbers are evenly spaced. Can anyone help me with my last method PlayTour() so when I run the program my table of numbers are evenly spaced and line up correctly?

public void playTour() {
    System.out.printf("%n%n");

    //display numbers in column
    for (int a = 0; a < 8; a++)
        System.out.printf("  %d", a);

    System.out.printf("%n%n");

    for (int row = 0; row < chessBoard[0].length; row++) {
        System.out.printf("%d ", row);

        for (int column = 0; column < chessBoard[1].length; column++)
            System.out.printf(" %d", chessBoard[row][column]);
        System.out.println();

    }
}//end method playTour

Answer 1

You can use a length specifier when using printf.

Example:

for(int a = 0; a < 8; a++)
    System.out.printf("%3d ",a);

will use 3 positions(like for a 3 digit number) for each number from 0 to 8, followed by a space.

Answer 2

I think this looks a bit more like you are expecting it to look like:

// display numbers in column
System.out.print("   ");
for(int a = 0; a < 8; a++) {
  System.out.printf("%3d", a);
}

System.out.printf("%n");
for(int row = 0; row < chessBoard[0].length; row++) {
  System.out.printf("%3d ", row);
  for(int column = 0; column < chessBoard[1].length; column++) {
    System.out.printf("%3d", chessBoard[row][column]);
  }
  System.out.println();
}

Output is something like this:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7
0  63 32 71  1 25  2  5  3
1   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
2   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
3   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
4   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
5   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
6   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3
7   6  3  7  1  5  2  5  3