Question abotu String.format() functionality

Question

Hello all,
I am curious as to whether this functionality exists in the String.format method, or if there is any other class in the current version of Java that would allow for this.
I want to construct a format string, where if one of the args contains a newline character in it, the same format for that arg will be used on the newline.
Example:
String s = String.format("%20s%20s","this line contains\na newline character","so does\nthis one");
System.out.println(s);
Actual Output:
this line contains
a newline character    so does
this one
Wanted Output:
this line contains         so does
a newline character      this oneHopefully there is something that exisits in the language that would allow me to do this. If no one can think of any easy way to do this? I have a few ideas, but it would require a whole lot of string manip. than I want to put into it =(
Anyways, I look forward to your reply. Thanks!

Answer 1

You want the method to treat the strings as multi-line blocks of text instead of as strings? And put the blocks next to each other instead of the strings? Maybe padding the blocks with spaces? Forget it, that's way too complicated for a quick and dirty formatting method.
And yes, a whole lot of string manipulation would be going into that.
Assuming that I understood your requirements correctly. I just went by the picture, I couldn't make any sense out of the words you used to describe it, so I may well be totally wrong.