Setting Tab Stops for Strings

This is in a RichTextBox.

I'm making a string of sports stats and I need to have them aligned neatly in the RichTextBox. Here is an example:
str = "12/24 (tab) 225 yards (tab) 2 TDs (tab) 2 INTs"

When I use the vbTab constant in place of (tab) I run into problems as the size of the text in each column can be different which makes the tab not balance out correctly.

I need to stop specifically at say, the 50th character no matter what the length of the characters before it. Something like TAB() for printing but this doesn't seem to work for strings.

Thanks,
neef

You could be use repeated blanks instead, eg:

Code:

---

    Dim txt As String = "12/24" & StrDup(8, " "c) & "225 yards" & StrDup(8, " "c) & "2 TDs" & StrDup(8, " "c) & "2 INTs"
        Me.RichTextBox1.Text = txt

---

See if this will be looking better

Code:

---

Dim Rows As String() = _
    { _
        String.Concat("5/24".TabStop, "5 yards".TabStop, "112 TDs".TabStop, "11"), _
        String.Concat("12/24".TabStop, "225 yards".TabStop, "2 TDs".TabStop, "11"), _
        String.Concat("1".TabStop, "2".TabStop, "3".TabStop) _
    }


For Each row In Rows
    Console.WriteLine("[{0}]", row)
Next

For Each row In Rows
    If row.Length > 50 Then
        Console.WriteLine("[{0}]", row.Substring(0, 49))
    Else
        Console.WriteLine("[{0}]", row)
    End If
Next

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The following goes into a code module

Code:

---

<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> _
<System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _
Function TabStop(ByVal value As String) As String
    Return value & System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Unescape("\t")
End Function

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This wasn't an exact solution but it set me in the right direction. I just needed to do some figuring to determine the correct value of StrDup's first input (instead of a 8 or 6 or whatever). I wanted the total spaces including the text to be 12; I subtracted 12 minus the string length and used that number as the number of duplicate spaces.

Works like a charm now, thanks!

One question, in StrDup(8, " "c) what is the c after the quotes for? That is new to me and I'm curious.

Kind of a pain to do all that just to duplicate the functionality of a ListView (in detail mode) in an RTB. Is there a reason why you have to do it that way?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neef

This wasn't an exact solution but it set me in the right direction. I just needed to do some figuring to determine the correct value of StrDup's first input (instead of a 8 or 6 or whatever). I wanted the total spaces including the text to be 12; I subtracted 12 minus the string length and used that number as the number of duplicate spaces.

Works like a charm now, thanks!

One question, in StrDup(8, " "c) what is the c after the quotes for? That is new to me and I'm curious.

---

this means a char - (c)

Type Characters. Appending the literal type character C to a single-character string literal forces it to the Char data type. Char has no identifier type character.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...v=VS.100).aspx

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

Kind of a pain to do all that just to duplicate the functionality of a ListView (in detail mode) in an RTB. Is there a reason why you have to do it that way?

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That's a good question. I didn't want a spreadsheet look, but rather a newspaper style.