The Weird and The Wonderful

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder() ;

foreach ( DataRow dr in datatable.Rows ) 
{
    result.AppendLine( string.Format( "{0}{1}[2}",
        new string( ' ', 9 ),
        dr[0].ToString().PadRight( ' ', 9 ),
        dr[1].ToString().PadRight( ' ', 9 ) );
}

return ( result.ToString() ) ;

PogoboyKramer wrote:

.ToString().PadRight... code could be cleaned up for readability

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
foreach (DataRow dr in datatable.Rows)
{
    result.AppendFormat("{0,9}{1,9}{2,9}", string.Empty, dr[0], dr[1]);
    result.AppendLine();
}
return result.ToString();

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
int fieldCount = 40;
foreach (DataRow dr in datatable.Rows)
{
    for(int i = 0; i < fieldCount; i++)
    {
        result.Append("         ");
        result.Append(dr[i].ToString().PadRight(' ', 9 );
    }
    result.AppendLine();
}
return result.ToString();

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

If you were writing a data to a fixed-width text file, what technique would you choose?

public string GetAsText() 
{
   using (var writer = new StringWriter())
   {
      WriteTo(writer);
      return writer.ToString();
   }
}

public void WriteToFile(string path)
{
   using (var writer = File.CreateText(path))
   {
      WriteTo(writer);
   }
}

public void WriteTo(TextWriter writer)
{
   foreach ( DataRow dr in datatable.Rows ) 
   {
      writer.WriteLine(...);
   }
}

using
(
    FixedFileFormatter f
=
    new FixedFileFormatter
    (
        System.Console.Out
    ,
        new FixedFileField ( 10 , Alignment.Left )
    ,
        new FixedFileField ( 15 , Alignment.Right )
    ,
        new FixedFileField ( 15 , Alignment.Center )
        {
            Format="X8"
        }
    ,
        new FixedFileField ( 10 , Alignment.Left )
    )
)
{
    f.WriteLine ( new object[] { "Hello, World!" ,  "Hello, World!" ,  255 , 42} ) ;
}

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

As I'm new to the company

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

and doesn't make the developer look stoooopid.