Fixed field for numbers?

Question

Hello
My program is to read numbers from file, and present these according to my specifications. I have succsessfully forced the output using DecimalFormatSymbols and pattern, with one exception: they do not have a fixed outputfield. I want this to be able to align the numbers at their decimal point, despite how large the numbers are.
I know I can make a method that inserts blanks in front of the number to fill out the space. In the case the number is too large, I can adopt a FORTRAN style: ******** instead of the number. However, I would like to be consistent, and find a solution using i18n methods. And frankly, I find it hard to believe that the DecimalFormat do not support decimal-aligned formats. So, what am I missing? Can you help me?
Regards
JT

Answer 1

The NumberFormat api mentions two ways to align output.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.font.*;
import java.text.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Alignment
    public static void main(String[] args)
        double[] numbers = {
            100.95, 1.1234567, 21.19, 888295.16, 99.1525, 8, 16.75, 12.2
        AlignmentPanel alignmentPanel = new AlignmentPanel(numbers);
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.getContentPane().add(alignmentPanel);
        f.setSize(400,400);
        f.setLocation(200,200);
        f.setVisible(true);
class AlignmentPanel extends JPanel
    Font font;
    NumberFormat nf;
    String[] text;
    final int
        top           =  50,
        decimalOffset = 100;    // from decimal to right edge of page
    public AlignmentPanel(double[] numbers)
        setBackground(Color.white);
        font = new Font("lucida typewriter regular", Font.PLAIN, 24);
        nf = new DecimalFormat("#.####");
        formatInput(numbers);
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
        super.paintComponent(g);
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        g2.setFont(font);
        int w = getWidth();
        int h = getHeight();
        FontRenderContext frc = g2.getFontRenderContext();
        float yPos = top;
        for(int j = 0; j < text.length; j++)
           String toDot = text[j];
           // get substring up to decimal point - integer portion
           if(text[j].indexOf(".") != -1)
               toDot = text[j].substring(0, text[j].indexOf("."));
           // get width and height of integer portion
           float width = (float)font.getStringBounds(toDot, frc).getWidth();
           LineMetrics lm = font.getLineMetrics(toDot, frc);
           float height = lm.getHeight();
           float x = (w - width - decimalOffset);
           float y = yPos + height;
           g2.drawString(text[j], x, y);
           yPos += height;
    private void formatInput(double[] n)
        text = new String[n.length];
        int maxFractionLength = 0;
        for(int j = 0; j < n.length; j++)
            text[j] = nf.format(n[j]);
}