Console.Write syntax: what does the format string "{0, -25}" mean

Question

I am writing C# code

Console.Write("{0,-25}", company);

In above code what does this "{0,-25}" thing mean?

Answer 1

You mention it's hard to see what it does: that's because it adds spaces and those are difficult to see in the console. Try adding a character directly before and after the output so you can more clearly see the space, like the examples below:

This

Console.WriteLine("[{0, -25}]", "Microsoft"); // Left aligned 
Console.WriteLine("[{0,  25}]", "Microsoft"); // Right aligned
Console.WriteLine("[{0,   5}]", "Microsoft"); // Ignored, Microsoft is longer than 5 chars

Will result in this (with spaces)

[Microsoft                ]
[                Microsoft]
[Microsoft]

Which looks like this in the console window: