Padding String with spaces -tried known methods but code not working!

Question

I am trying to figure out an easy way to pad a string with spaces at the end. The way that definitely works is a for loop where string = string + " "; until string is the length that I need. However, for several dozen strings this is a lot of unnecessary overhead. I've done some research and tried a few different things - yet none of them seem to actually pad the string.
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
public class Test
     public static void main(String[] args)
          String one = "1234";
                //print string at current lenght
          System.out.println(one+"*");
                //try padding using String.format (in padRight method below)
          one = padRight(one,(8-one.length()));
          System.out.println(one+"*");
                one="1234";
                //try padding using StringUtils
          String tmp = StringUtils.rightPad(one, (8-one.length()));
          System.out.println(tmp+"*");
     private static String padRight(String s, int n)
          return String.format("%1$-" + n + "s", s);
}I've researched and these are the two most common methods people are suggesting. I am using java 1.5 so the String.format should work.. however, when I run it (I use JBuilder) the output is always "1234*".... after I try to pad it the output should be "1234 *" (with 4 spaces between the 4 and *) . Any suggestions is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Wow, I completely botched that... uncle_alice, thank you for clearing that up for me.
pbrockway2 - thank you, I actually did peruse the Formatter documentation - I would never post without researching something first... but I must have read it with one eye shut because walked away with the impression that I needed to submit the difference. I obviously misunderstood the documentation.
Thanks!