VB.Net 2005 - Trying to use Fixed Column Length variables???

I need to create an output text file with fixed length columns. I'm not sure how to do that in VB.Net 2005. I'm thinking that I could write a routine where I pass the variable, the length the column needs to be, the data type (string or number), and then somehow return a variable with a padded value.

Anyone have any ideas on how to do this easier....I'm all ears!!!!

Thanks,
Blake