How to format printf statement better so things always line up

Question

I have this printf statement:

 printf(\"name: %s\\t\"
        \"args: %s\\t\"
        \"value %d\\t\"
        \"arraysize %d\\t\"
        \"scope %d\\n\",
               


        

Answer 1

Each conversion specifier can be given a field width which give the minimum number of characters that conversion will use. There are other flags and precision that can be used to control the output (for example with the %s conversion the precision item says how many characters maximum will be used).

printf("name: %20.20s\t"
        "args: %10.10s\t"
        "value %6d\t"
        "arraysize %6d\t"
        "scope %6d\n",
         sp->name,
         sp->args,
         sp->value,
         sp->arraysize,
         sp->scope);