Solved

padding longs

Posted on 2012-04-05

Java

3 solutions

Medium Priority

300 Views

Last Modified: 2012-04-05

I am doing some math using longs which will yield numbers like 5, 10, 20, etc
but I always need to pad the result to be 3 digits.
What's the best way to do that?

Comment

Question by:dpalyca755

[X]

Welcome to Experts Exchange

Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.

Help others & share knowledge
Earn cash & points
Learn & ask questions

Join The Community

7 Comments

LVL 14

Assisted Solution

by:CPColin

CPColin earned 1336 total points

ID: 378141272012-04-05

Using zeros in a DecimalFormat will work:

new DecimalFormat("000").format(x);

Open in new window

LVL 23

Assisted Solution

by:wdosanjos

wdosanjos earned 664 total points

ID: 378141352012-04-05

Use the DecimalFormat class. Here is an example:

import java.text.*;

public class Test
{
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        DecimalFormat formatter = new DecimalFormat("000");
        long nbr = 50;

        String fmt_nbr = formatter.format(nbr);

        System.out.println(fmt_nbr);
        
        /*
        
        Output:
        
        050
        
        */
     }
}

Open in new window

Author Comment

by:dpalyca755

ID: 378141902012-04-05

Can I use the String Format method to do so?
What is the syntax if do so?
let's say the 5 I referenced earlier is stored in the variable myString.

LVL 14

Accepted Solution

by:CPColin

CPColin earned 1336 total points

ID: 378142112012-04-05

Assuming you have a long, it would be something like this:

String.format("%03d", myLong);

Open in new window

The "0" means "pad with zeros," the "3" means "make the output three characters wide," and the "d" means "output a number."

Author Comment

by:dpalyca755

ID: 378142962012-04-05

I can't compile that for some reason.
I tried that exact line too.
What am I doing wrong?

Code Snippet:
long c = 5;
String pad2 = String.format("%03d", c);
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error:
test.java:51: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method format (java.lang.String,long)
location: class java.lang.String
String pad2 = String.format("%03d", c);
^
1 error

LVL 14

Expert Comment

by:CPColin

ID: 378143192012-04-05

I've only seen that happen when using a version of Java older than 1.5 or when I've told the compiler to pretend like its from an old version of Java. Do you know if that's happening?

Author Comment

by:dpalyca755

ID: 378143302012-04-05

Yup....I was accidentally pointing to an older version.
I fixed it. Works now.
Thanks.

Featured Post

Question has a verified solution.

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question

Creating Spreadsheets in Java via Apache POI (HSSF)

Article by: Bruce

Are you developing a Java application and want to create Excel Spreadsheets? You have come to the right place, this article will describe how you can create Excel Spreadsheets from a Java Application. For the purposes of this article, I will be u…

Java

Android Gesture Tutorial – Touch, Scroll and Press on Android Device Screen

Article by: Navneet

In this post we will learn how to make Android Gesture Tutorial and give different functionality whenever a user Touch or Scroll android screen.

Methods

Video by: Michael

Viewers learn about how to reduce the potential repetitiveness of coding in main by developing methods to perform specific tasks for their program. Additionally, objects are introduced for the purpose of learning how to call methods in Java. Define …