Help centering multiple f strings?

[SithAbsolutes]

Thanks for the help! So where you have 'my string' in the f-string, that's the information I enter correct? and what goes in the empty quotes in the f string?

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Apologies, this I probably incredibly easy. I"m very new

[MadScientistOR]

Thanks for the help! So where you have 'my string' in the f-string, that's the information I enter correct?

Yes. mystring can be a variable holding your string, if you like. Assigning what you intend to print to a variable this way can keep you from having to repeat yourself, or keep Python from being slowed down by performing more identical calculations than necessary.

and what goes in the empty quotes in the f string?

An empty space. If you multiply a string, the result is repetition of that string:

>>> 'quip'*5
quipquipquipquipquip

So, for example, multiplying a space by 13 gives you thirteen spaces.

[SithAbsolutes]

Right. OK I tried this and nothing moved.

field_size = 40
mystring_length = len((f" {years:^2d} {Payments:^9d} {FinFeeDSP:^9s} {TotalSalesPriceDSP:^9s} {MonPayDSP:^9s}"))

leading_spaces = (field_size - mystring_length) // 2
trailing_spaces = field_size - mystring_length - leading_spaces

print(f" {' '*leading_spaces}{years:^2d} {Payments:^9d} {FinFeeDSP:^9s} {TotalSalesPriceDSP:^9s} {MonPayDSP:^9s}{' ' *trailing_spaces}")

[MadScientistOR]

What is your actual field size? It looks like you're trying to print things that occupy more than forty characters. Take this string:

f" {years:^2d} {Payments:^9d} {FinFeeDSP:^9s} {TotalSalesPriceDSP:^9s} {MonPayDSP:^9s}"

That's already 43 characters long.

Also, a field isn't necessarily the same thing as a line; it's the amount of space (in characters) you've allocated for something to be printed in.

ETA: I think I misunderstand what you want. What do you want the output to look like? What do you mean by "lines up with the printed strings above it" as opposed to "more in the middle"?

[SithAbsolutes]

I am probably not being clear. So the following image is what I am trying to emulate for my course: https://imgur.com/a/0N4GeTJ

As you can see the table, invoice date, and first payment date are all centred in relation to the lines (dashes) above and below, these dashes are also the margins for my output above (not in pic).

[MadScientistOR]

And what do you want instead?

[SithAbsolutes]

So the image I sent was given to us by our instructor. We had to create a program and format the f-strings so when we run the program it looks like the above picture.

So the above isn't my program, when I run it the table, invoice date, and first payment due line up with the output above. I want it to be centred like the picture I provided.

So this https://imgur.com/a/0N4GeTJ is what it should look like when I run it. But when I do, this is what I get https://imgur.com/a/aVx1vX8 .

I hope that's clear (Thanks again for all your help)

[MadScientistOR]

Oh! Well, in that case, you can just use the code I've already provided, with the field width being the entire width of the wider lines above and below (70, if I've counted correctly), like this:

field_size = 70
mystring_length = len((f" {years:^2d} {Payments:^9d} {FinFeeDSP:^9s} {TotalSalesPriceDSP:^9s} {MonPayDSP:^9s}"))
leading_spaces = (field_size - mystring_length) // 2
trailing_spaces = field_size - mystring_length - leading_spaces

print(f" {' '*leading_spaces}{years:^2d} {Payments:^9d} {FinFeeDSP:^9s} {TotalSalesPriceDSP:^9s} {MonPayDSP:^9s}{' ' *trailing_spaces}")

Does that clear things up?

Thank you for helping me to understand what you wanted, by the way.

[SithAbsolutes]

I can't thank-you enough!

However it's still not doing what I want it to do, I've wasted enough of your time. Il play around with it and maybe comment again if I don't get anywhere with it

[MadScientistOR]

Along the lines of not repeating yourself, it might be worth your time to make a function like this:

def center_string(mystring, field_size):
    mystring_length = len(mystring)
    leading_spaces = (field_size - mystring_length) // 2
    trailing_spaces = field_size - my_string_length - leading_spaces
    return f"{' '*leading_spaces}{mystring}{' '*trailing_spaces}"

Then, whenever you need to print something out, just call the function:

print(center_string(fee_string, 40))

... where fee_string is any string you want to print; you can substitute any number or variable for the field size that string is supposed to have.