how can I use string.format() to right justify a string within three characters?

Question

   | -1|  0|  1|  2|
   +---+---+---+---+
-2 | hi| hi| hi| hi|
   +---+---+---+---+
-1 | hi| hi| hi| hi|
   +---+---+---+---+

There is a chessboard with numberings on the first row and first column. Each cell can hold a string less than three characters and each string is right justified. So how can I use string.format() to right justify a string? Even though like "hi" is a two-character string, I still want a three-character cell, how can I make it? I am not very familiar with string.format()

Answer 1

To justify a String You can try this:

System.out.println( "%-3s %3s %n", NAME1, NAME2);

To get the left-justified column, a minus symbol, the number of characters,. So ''%-3s'' means 3 characters left-justified.

To get a right-justified column delete the minus sign.