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You can, if you want, display
neater reports by telling
printf how much space each argument should occupy. You supply this
space information by adding a number to the print specification. The
print specification %6s, for example, means display at least six
characters using the corresponding argument value, a string, along with
extra spaces, if necessary, on the left. Similarly, %8i means display at least eight characters using the corresponding argument value, an
integer, along with spaces, if necessary, on the left.
Consider, for example, the following statement:
printf ("%6s%8i\n", "Food", 300);
The result includes the argument values, along with the spaces required to meet the stipulated minimum number of characters:
*----- Spaces preceding first argument value start here | | *----- First argument-value characters start here | | | | *----- Spaces preceding second argument value start here | | | | | | *----- Second argument-value characters start here | | | | v v v v Food 300
The stipulated minimum number of characters is called the field width. The spaces used to augment the space taken by the argument values are called padding characters.