I am trying to create a table in c++ but the lines separating the columns don't line up

Question

In c++ I am working on a code that creates a table in a .txt file for organization of money and I am having an issue where the lines separating the columns don't match up if you don't put exactly exactly 10 numbers/letters into the box. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Here is a screenshot of what the issue

Here is my code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    ofstream outputFile;
    double monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday;
    int columns;
    string categories;
    outputFile.open("organize.txt");
    cout << "How many columns do you need in your table? ";
    cin >> columns;
        outputFile << "| Categories |   Monday   |  Tuesday  |  Wednesday  |  Thursday  |   Friday   |\n";
        outputFile << "|------------|------------|-----------|-------------|------------|------------|\n";  
    for (int count = 1; count <= columns; count++)
    {
        cout << "Enter category (no more than "
        << count << ": ";
        cin >> categories;
        outputFile <<"| " << categories;
    }
    outputFile.close();
    return 0;
}

Basically I need to be able to stop the user from entering more than 10 letters/numbers while providing empty space to fill the area if they used less than 10 characters.

Answer 1

Though it is not entirely clear how you intend to fill the Monday - Friday columns, with your "Categories" columns being the first, you can use std::setw() to ensure that column is filled properly. Looking at the "Categories" column with a maximum of 10-characters, with 2-spaces (one on each side) and 2-| (one on each side) you have a total width for those of 14-characters.

Since categories is std::string, after taking input from the user, you find the number of characters input with categories.size(). So to read a category from the user, output the category (after "| ") and then compute the number of characters needed to fill the remainder of the field (saving room for the last '|') you could use:

std::setw(14-categories.size()-1)

Putting your example together to fill the first Categories column with the user input you could do:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

int main (void) {

    std::ofstream outputFile;
    // double monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday;
    int columns = 0;
    std::string categories;
    outputFile.open("organize.txt");
    std::cout << "How many columns do you need in your table? ";
    if (!(std::cin >> columns)) {
        std::cerr << "stream error on input.\n";
        return 1;
    }
    outputFile << "| Categories |   Monday   |  Tuesday  |  Wednesday  "
                    "|  Thursday  |   Friday   |\n";
        outputFile << "|------------|------------|-----------|-------------"
                        "|------------|------------|\n";  
    for (int count = 0; count < columns; count++)
    {
        std::cout << "Enter category (" << count+1 << "/" << columns << "): ";
        std::cin >> categories;
        outputFile << "| " << categories << std::setw(14-categories.size()-1)
                    << "|\n";
    }
    outputFile.close();
    return 0;
}

Example Use/Output

$ ./bin/cout_columns
How many columns do you need in your table? 7
Enter category (1/7): nuts
Enter category (2/7): bolts
Enter category (3/7): screws
Enter category (4/7): nails
Enter category (5/7): staples
Enter category (6/7): pliars
Enter category (7/7): hammer

Output File

$ cat organize.txt
| Categories |   Monday   |  Tuesday  |  Wednesday  |  Thursday  |   Friday   |
|------------|------------|-----------|-------------|------------|------------|
| nuts       |
| bolts      |
| screws     |
| nails      |
| staples    |
| pliars     |
| hammer     |

That in-a-nut-shell is the way you will work down the rest of the columns to size and fill each. The challenge being you will have to have a full-weeks data for each of the categories before you start writing to the file because there isn't a way to back up and fill them in later.

Look things over and let me know if this is what you were after or if you have any questions.