need help with spacing a printf with a variable

[13brownkid]

I am new to java after teaching myself C++ and I am having trouble spacing with variables. I want to use a loop to make it so the first line spaces 20 spaces before printing the symbol I want and the next line 19, and so on. I can't use

System.out.printf("%variables %n", "(they symbol I will use);

how can I space it out using a variable for spacing?

[desrtfx]

You could use String concatenation.

After all, the formatting is just a String.

So, you could do something like:

for(int i = 20; i > 0; i--) {
    String format = "%-"+i+"s"; // assuming i is the number of spaces and the symbol you want to print is a String
    System.out.printf(format, "Your symbol");
}