How to make responsive table in Java?

Question

I am a beginner in programming and I am currently learning how to build a responsive table in Java. I came across something that I think I need help to figure out with. Let me use an easy example to illustrate it.

I have 2 arrays,

String[] name = new String[] {"James","Tom","Rodriguez"};
Integer[] score = new Double[] {15,20,13};

and I want to transform them into something like this,

Name     Score
James     15
Tom       20
Rodriguez 13

I am using "\\t" and somehow successful in making them aligned but then when I add some name that is a bit longer the output become like this.

Name     Score
James     15
Tom       20
Rodriguez Fernandes  13

My friend told me to use System.out.printf but I am not sure how to apply it with arrays, especially when the data is large. Could someone help me how to better format a table something like this?

Answer 1

In order to do this, you first need to find the string with maximum length and append (max length minus string length) spaces while printing all the other names, eg:

public static void print(String[] names, Integer[] score){
    //Find the name with max length
    int maxLength = Arrays.stream(names)
        .mapToInt(String::length)
        .max().getAsInt() + 2;

    //Now, start the printing
    System.out.println(String.format("%1$-" + maxLength + "s", "Name") + "Score");
    for(int i=0 ; i<names.length ; i++){
        System.out.println(String.format("%1$-" + maxLength + "s", names[i]) + score[i]);
    }
}

Here, I have added 2 to the max length to show two empty spaces after name with maximum length. This can be called from main , eg:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
    print(new String[]{"James","Tom","Rodriguez"}, new Integer[]{15,20,30});
}