Align Output Using Justifications in C Language

By using justifications in the printf statement, we can format the data in various ways. To implement the right justification, insert a minus sign before the width value in the %s character.

printf("%-15s",text);

Program 1

The example below prints a table with name and amounts, formatted in two columns with fixed widths for better alignment, using printf() for row and column-wise output.

#include<stdio.h>
int main(){
   char a[20] = "Names", b[20]="amount to be paid";
   char a1[20] = "Bhanu", b1[20]="Hari",c1[20]="Lucky",d1[20]="Puppy";
   int a2 = 200, b2 = 400, c2 = 250, d2 = 460;
   printf("%-15s %-15s
", a, b);
   printf("%-15s %-15d
", a1, a2);
   printf("%-15s %-15d
", b1, b2);
   printf("%-15s %-15d
", c1, c2);
   printf("%-15s %-15d
", d1, d2);
   return 0;
}

Output

The result is generated as follows ?

Names           amount to be paid
Bhanu           200            
Hari            400            
Lucky           250            
Puppy           460     

Program 2

This C program prints a table with names and amounts, formatting the data into two columns using printf() with determined alignment. It demonstrates basic integer and string formatting in C.

#include<stdio.h>
int main(){
 char a[20] = "Names", b[20]="amount to be paid";
 char a1[20] = "Bhanu", b1[20]="Hari",c1[20]="Lucky",d1[20]="Puppy";
 int a2=200,b2=400,c2=250,d2=460;
 printf("%2s %2s
", a, b);
 printf("%5s %5d
", a1,a2);
 printf("%2s %2d
", b1,b2);
 printf("%5s %5d
", c1, c2);
 printf("%2s %2d
", d1, d2);
 return 0;
}

Output

The output is obtained as follows ?

Names         amount to be paid
Bhanu          200
Hari           400
Lucky          250
Puppy          460

Note: Alignment is not proper if we do not use the correct justification