Format fixed-format text file lines

Question

there's a text file

first second third
1 2 3
yes no ok
hmmmmmmm yep_a_long_word_it_is ahahahahahahha

what java functions /libs to use to align words so that they are looked like this (fixed width based on the longest column's length), let's say center align:

  first          second            third
    1              2                 3
    yes            no                ok
hmmmmmmm yep_a_long_word_it_is ahahahahahahha

You know, I need "JUSTIFY-FULL" functionality of Microsoft Word (Ctrl + J).

Answer 1

See center(String, int) method of org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils in Apache Commons Lang.

Link: http://commons.apache.org/lang/

Answer 2

I don't know of any libraries that will do this for you, but it is a pretty trivial programming task...

Make one pass through the data and measure the maximum length of a string in each column

Make a second pass through writing the data out with padding on either side of each datum to make the width the same as the maximum.

Write yourself a function that pads a String on either end to a fixed length.

EDIT: just seen the other answer about the Apache commons string centering utility - that'll save you having to write one, so long as you don't mind adding that dependency to you rproject.