Need Help with some code

Question

Hello, thanks for helping:
my problem is that I am creating a "before" and "after" situation between strings. (What a string was before.. and now what it is)
so here's the sample I created. Basically a display issue. If you run it you'll know the problem.
Thanks again for helping.
   import javax.swing.*;
   import java.awt.*;
   import java.awt.event.*;
    public class JScrollExample extends JFrame
      JPanel mainpanel = new JPanel();
      JTextArea text = new JTextArea();
      JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(text);
      String[] before, after, other;
      int sda, indexMaxLength;
      int[] ja;
      StringBuilder[] sb;
      String[] name;
       public JScrollExample()
         getContentPane().add(mainpanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
         setTitle("JScrollExample");
         text.setColumns(100);
         text.setRows(30);
         mainpanel.add(scroll);
         before = new String[]
               "asdf-asdfasdfasdf-asdf", "asdf-asdfasdfasdf-asdffdsaasdf",
               "asdf-asdffdsaasdffdssasdfasdf-asdf", "AVDSDFDSasdf-asdfasdfasdf-asdf",
               "asdsdfsdfsdfsdfsdsdfsdf-asddsffasdsdfsdfasdfvfdvdfvfd-asdf"
         after = new String[]
               "jkloolkj-iriod-3342", "jsdfsdolkj-iriod-3342", "jkloolkj-fdsfiriod-3342",
               "jkloolkj-idsfsfsfsdfsdfiod-3sdfds342", "ASXkloolkj-iriod-3342MBW"
         other = new String[]
               "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA",
               "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", "AAAAAAAAA", "AAAAAAAAAAAAA"
         indexMaxLength = 0;
         sb = new StringBuilder[before.length];
         ja = new int[before.length];
         name = new String[before.length];
         for(int j = 0; j < before.length; j++)
            if(before[j].length() > before[indexMaxLength].length())
               indexMaxLength = j;
         sda = before[indexMaxLength].length();
         for(int i = 0; i < before.length; i++)
            ja[i] = ((sda - before.length()) + 25);
for(int j = 0; j < ja.length; j++)
sb[j] = new StringBuilder("");
for(int g = 0; g < ja[j]; g++)
sb[j].append(" -");
text.append("I'm trying to make it look nice and neat," +
               "and have each line have same amount of '-' " + "I tried doing it " +
               "and this is what I got. Basically what i'm doing is finding " +
               "the longest string, subtracting each string's \nlength with the " +
               " longest one, then adding 25, to get an equal value, then using " +
               "that value to put that many '-' in between before and after. But " +
               "because every character has a different size, it doesn't work\n " +
               "unless all the characters are the same\n\n");
for(int i = 0; i < before.length; i++)
String y = (after[i]);
text.append(before[i] + sb[i].toString() + "> " + y + "\n");
indexMaxLength = 0;
sb = new StringBuilder[before.length];
ja = new int[before.length];
for(int j = 0; j < other.length; j++)
if(other[j].length() > other[indexMaxLength].length())
indexMaxLength = j;
sda = other[indexMaxLength].length();
for(int i = 0; i < other.length; i++)
ja[i] = ((sda - other[i].length()) + 25);
for(int j = 0; j < ja.length; j++)
sb[j] = new StringBuilder("");
for(int g = 0; g < ja[j]; g++)
sb[j].append(" -");
text.append("\n\nWHAT I WANT IS THIS: \n\n");
for(int i = 0; i < other.length; i++)
String y = (after[i]);
text.append(other[i] + sb[i].toString() + "> " + y + "\n");
public static void main (String[] args)
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JScrollExample frame = new JScrollExample();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);          
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.pack();

Answer 1

what methods do you think I should use?I think you should use the monospaced font.
I went to the font metrics page, and I understand what it does.Well, then you should realize that you can't be guaranteed that your column will line up if you attempt to use the FontMetrics class. All the FontMetrics class can tell you is the width of a String.
You can calculate the width of your longest String and then calculate the width of 25 " -" to get the total width before the second colum. Lets assume this width is 500. Now lets also assume that each " -" string is 10 pixels.
If we have "i" as the only text and its width is 3 pixels, then how do you calculate a multiple of " -" which will total to 500 pixels?
Similiarly if you have a "W" as the text and its width is 7 pixels you will never be able to add characters that will total to 500 pixesl.
So if you need "- - - - >" between column 1 and column 2 the easiest solution is to use a monospaced font.
If on the other hand you only care about column two lining up in the same postion each time, then you may be able to use tabs in a JTextPane as you can easily control the placement of text for each tab. This posting will give you an idea:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=57&threadID=585006