C# – Creating a fixed width file in C#

c++

What is the best way to create a fixed width file in C#. I have a bunch of fields with lengths to write out. Say 20,80.10,2 etc all left aligned. Is there an easy way to do this?

Best Solution

You can use string.Format to easily pad a value with spaces e.g.

string a = String.Format("|{0,5}|{1,5}|{2,5}", 1, 20, 300);
string b = String.Format("|{0,-5}|{1,-5}|{2,-5}", 1, 20, 300);

// 'a' will be equal to "|    1|   20|  300|"
// 'b' will be equal to "|1    |20   |300  |"

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common

C# – Best way to repeat a character in C#

What about this:

string tabs = new string('\t', n);

Where n is the number of times you want to repeat the string.

Or better:

static string Tabs(int n)
{
    return new string('\t', n);
}

Best Solution

Related Solutions

C# – How to create a dropdownlist from an enum in ASP.NET MVC

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

For MVC 5 and lower

C# – Best way to repeat a character in C#

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