How to format strings using printf() to get equal length in the output?

Question

I have two functions, one which produces messages like Starting initialization... and another which checks return codes and outputs \"Ok\", \

Answer 1

Additionally, if you want the flexibility of choosing the width, you can choose between one of the following two formats (with or without truncation):

int width = 30;
//no truncation uses %-*s
printf( "%-*s %s\n", width, "Starting initialization...", "Ok." );
// output is "Starting initialization...     Ok."

//truncated to the specified width uses %-.*s
printf( "%-.*s %s\n", width, "Starting initialization...", "Ok." ); 
// output is "Starting initialization... Ok."