How to Print Table in Java Using Formatter?

Sometimes, we are required to represent data in tabular format or in table form, especially when we are dealing with the database. In this section, we will create Java programs that print data on the console in tabular or table format.

There are many ways to print tables through a Java program.

Using Java Formatter Class
Using Java PrintStream Class

Using Java Formatter Class

Java Formatter class belongs to java.util package. The class provides the format() method that prints the data in the table format.

Java Formatter.format() Method

The method is used to write the formatted string to the

Syntax:

Parameters:

l: Locale to apply during format. It is optional. If we do not specify the locale in the parameter, no localization is applied.

format: A format string.

args: Arguments referenced by the format specifiers in the format string. If there are more arguments than format specifiers, the extra arguments are ignored. The number of arguments may be 0. Note that we can pass the limited number of arguments.

Returns: It returns the formatter.

Exception Throws:

IllegalFormatException: If the format string contains illegal syntax.
FormatterClosedException: If the formatter is closed.

Let's use the print() and format() method to print tables through a Java program.

FormatterExample.java

import java.util.Formatter;
public class FomatterExample 
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception 
{
int num[] = {10, 21, 13, 4, 15, 6, 27, 8, 19};
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
fmt.format("%15s %15s %15s\n", "Number", "Square", "Cube");
for (int n : num) 
{
fmt.format("%14s %14s %17s\n", n, (n*n), (n*n*n));
}
System.out.println(fmt);
}
}

Output:

How to Print Table in Java Using Formatter?

Using Java PrintStream Class

Java provides the PrintStream class that is used to print formatted output. The class belongs to the java.io package. There are many methods that can be used to print data on the console. But in this section we will use only two methods of the class i.e., printf() and format() method.

Java PrintStream.printf() Method

The printf() method is used to write the formatted string to this output stream. The invocation of the method is the same as:

Syntax:

Parameters:

l: Locale to apply during format. It is optional. If we do not specify the locale in the parameter then no localization is applied.

format: A format string.

Returns: It returns the output stream.

Exception Throws: It throws IllegalFormatException if the format string contains illegal syntax. It also throws NullPointerException if we have not specified the syntax.

Java PrintStream.format() Method

The format() method is used to write a formatted string to this output stream using the specified format string and arguments.

Syntax:

Parameters:

l: Locale to apply during format. It is optional. If we do not specify the locale in the parameter then no localization is applied.

format: A format string.

Returns: It returns the output stream.

Exception Throws: It throws IllegalFormatException if the format string contains illegal syntax. It also throws NullPointerException if we have not specified the syntax.

Let's use the printf() and format() method to print tables through a Java program.

Employee.java

public class Employee
{
private String id;
private String name;
private char gender;
private String emailId;
private int age;
private double salary;
//generating getter and setter methods
public String getId() 
{
return id; 
}
public void setId(String id) 
{
this.id = id;
}
public String getName() 
{
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) 
{
this.name = name;
}
public char getGender() 
{
return gender; 
}
public void setGender(char gender) 
{
this.gender = gender;
}
public String getEmailId() 
{
return emailId;
}
public void setEmailId(String emailId) 
{
this.emailId = emailId;
}
public int getAge() 
{
return age;
}
public void setAge(int age) 
{
this.age = age;
}
public double getSalary() 
{
return salary;
}
public void setSalary(double salary) 
{
this.salary= salary;
}
//creating a default Constructor
public Employee()
{
super();
}
//creating a parameterized constructor of the class
public Employee(String id, String name, char gender, int age, String emailId, double salary) 
{
super();
this.id = id;
this.name = name;
this.gender = gender;
this.age = age;
this.emailId = emailId;
this.salary = salary;
}
}

In the above code, we have generated getters and setters. Now we will create the main class in which we will add some objects to the list that will display on the console in table format.

EmployeeMain.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class EmployeeMain
{
public static void main(String args[]) 
{
//creating an empty list of employee and adding objects to them 
List<Employee> employees= new ArrayList<>();
employees.add(new Employee("B065", "Emma", 'F', 21, "emma123@yahoo.com",  78000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("M034", "Olivia", 'F', 24, "olivia123@gmail.com",  89000));
employees.add(new Employee("C045", "Smith", 'M', 25, "Smith997@rediff.com",  56000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("L056", "Herry", 'M', 22, "herry23@hotmail.com",  56000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("P078", "William", 'M', 27, "william56@gmail.com",  80000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("G089", "Maria", 'F', 30, "maria90@gmail.com",  100000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("S012", "Julia", 'F', 25, "julia1990@gmail.com",  60000.00));
employees.add(new Employee("M055", "David", 'M', 23, "david99@gmail.com",  70000.00));
//prints the list objects in tabular format
System.out.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
System.out.printf("%5s %10s %10s %8s %20s %17s", "EMPLOYEE ID", "NAME", "GENDER", "AGE", "E-MAIL ID", "SALARY");
System.out.println();
System.out.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
//iterates over the list 
for(Employee employee: employees)
{
System.out.format("%7s %14s %7s %10s %25s %13s", employee.getId(), employee.getName(), employee.getGender(), employee.getAge(), employee.getEmailId(), employee.getSalary());
System.out.println();
}
System.out.println("----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
}
}

Output: