Centering strings with printf()

Question

By default, printf() seems to align strings to the right.

printf(\"%10s %20s %20s\\n\", \"col1\", \"col2\", \"col3\");
/*       col1                     


        

Answer 1

You may try write own function for this problem.

/**
 * Returns a sting "str" centered in string of a length width "new_length".
 * Padding is done using the specified fill character "placeholder".
 */
char *
str_center(char str[], unsigned int new_length, char placeholder)
{
    size_t str_length = strlen(str);

    // if a new length is less or equal length of the original string, returns the original string
    if (new_length <= str_length)
        return str;

    char *buffer;
    unsigned int i, total_rest_length;

    buffer = malloc(sizeof(char) * new_length);

    // length of a wrapper of the original string
    total_rest_length = new_length - str_length;

    // write a prefix to buffer
    i = 0;
    while (i < (total_rest_length / 2)) {
        buffer[i] = placeholder;
        ++i;
    }
    buffer[i + 1] = '\0';

    // write the original string
    strcat(buffer, str);

    // write a postfix to the buffer
    i += str_length;
    while (i < new_length) {
        buffer[i] = placeholder;
        ++i;
    }
    buffer[i + 1] = '\0';

    return buffer;
}

Results:

puts(str_center("A", 0, '-')); // A
puts(str_center("A", 1, '-')); // A
puts(str_center("A", 10, '-')); // ----A-----
puts(str_center("text", 10, '*')); // ***text***
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 26, '!')); // The C programming language
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 27, '!')); // The C programming language!
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 28, '!')); // !The C programming language!
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 29, '!')); // !The C programming language!!
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 30, '!')); // !!The C programming language!!
puts(str_center("The C programming language", 31, '!')); // !!The C programming language!!!