The optional alignment component is a signed integer indicating the preferred formatted field width. If the value of alignment is less than the length of the formatted string, alignment is ignored and the length of the formatted string is used as the field width. The formatted data in the field is right-aligned if alignment is positive and left-aligned if alignment is negative. If padding is necessary, white space is used. The comma is required if alignment is specified.
The following example defines two arrays, one containing the names of employees and the other containing the hours they worked over a two-week period. The composite format string left-aligns the names in a 20-character field, and right-aligns their hours in a 5-character field. Note that the "N1" standard format string is also used to format the hours with one fractional digit.
Module Example
Public Sub Main()
Dim names() As String = { "Adam", "Bridgette", "Carla", "Daniel",
"Ebenezer", "Francine", "George" }
Dim hours() As Decimal = { 40, 6.667d, 40.39d, 82, 40.333d, 80,
16.75d }
Console.WriteLine("{0,-20} {1,5}", "Name", "Hours")
Console.WriteLine()
For ctr As Integer = 0 To names.Length - 1
Console.WriteLine("{0,-20} {1,5:N1}", names(ctr), hours(ctr))
Next
End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
' Name Hours
'
' Adam 40.0
' Bridgette 6.7
' Carla 40.4
' Daniel 82.0
' Ebenezer 40.3
' Francine 80.0
' George 16.8
Via.
