How to set a fixed width with cout?

I want to cout a table like output using c++. It should look like this

Passes in Stock : Student Adult ------------------------------- Spadina 100 200 Bathurst 200 300 Keele 100 100 Bay 200 200 

yet mine always looks like

Passes in Stock : Student Adult ------------------------------- Spadina 100 200 Bathurst 200 300 Keele 100 100 Bay 200 200 

my code for the output

std::cout << "Passes in Stock : Student Adult" << std::endl; std::cout << "-------------------------------"; for (int i = 0; i < numStations; i++) { std::cout << std::left << station[i].name; std::cout << std::right << std::setw(18) << station[i].student << std::setw(6) << station[i].adult << std::endl; } 

how can I change it so it looks like the output at the top?

2 Answers

For consistent spacing you can store the lengths of the headers in an array.

size_t headerWidths[3] = { std::string("Passes in Stock").size(), std::string("Student").size(), std::string("Adult").size() }; 

The things inbetween, such as " : " the space between Student and Adult should be considered extraneous output that you don't factor into the calculation.

for (int i = 0; i < numStations; i++) { std::cout << std::left << std::setw(headerWidths[0]) << station[i].name; // Spacing between first and second header. std::cout << " "; std::cout << std::right << std::setw(headerWidths[1]) << station[i].student // Add space between Student and Adult. << " " << std::setw(headerWidths[2]) << station[i].adult << std::endl; } 

use setw()

// setw example #include <iostream> // std::cout, std::endl #include <iomanip> // std::setw int main () { std::cout << std::setw(10); std::cout << 77 << std::endl; return 0; }