Python Cookbook

Aligning Strings

Credit: Luther Blissett

Problem

You want to align strings left, right, or center.

Solution

That’s what the ljust, rjust, and center methods of string objects are for. Each takes a single argument, the width of the string you want as a result, and returns the starting string with spaces on either or both sides:

>>> print '|', 'hej'.ljust(20), '|', 'hej'.rjust(20), '|', 'hej'.center(20), '|'
| hej             |             hej |       hej       |'.

Discussion

Centering, left-justifying, or right-justifying text comes up surprisingly often—for example, when you want to print a simple report with centered page numbers. Because of this, Python string objects supply this functionality through their methods.

See Also

The Library Reference section on string methods; Java Cookbook Recipe 3.5.