Java: Formatted conversion to String

Format conversion

You can use a format, a string which tells how you want values converted to string.

Formatting numbers with %d (integers) and %f (floating point)

The basic support is in the java.util.Formatter class, where a Formatter object is created and it's format method is called. However, it's more common to use one of these convenience methods:

• String.format(format, values...)
• System.out.printf(format, values...) or System.err.print.

Basic format structure for three types

• Formatting most values

     %[argument_index$][flags][width][.precision]conversion

• Formating Calendar values

     %[argument_index$][flags][width][.precision]conversion

• Non-argument values

     %[flags][width]conversion

Like C's printf. If you are familiar with C's printf formats, you will be very comfortable with Java's formats, altho they are slightly different.

Full description of formatting

Sun's Java documentation has a full description of the formatting codes. You should download the latest version of the API documentation. Here is a link to Java version 5 documentation: java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/Formatter.html .