formatting - Printf not functioning properly in Java 1.7 -

i'm doing assignment school requires program users personal information through various methods(last name, first name, address, etc.) , output them through main method.

problem: printf statement works fine when displaying name, when displays rest of users information, won't format properly.

import java.util.scanner;  public class personalinfo {  public static string lastname, firstname, address, email, phone; public static scanner kb = new scanner(system.in);  public static void main(string[] args) {        getlastname();     getfirstname();     getaddress();     getemail();     getphone();      displayname();     displayaddress();     displayemailphone(); }   //--------get methods-------- public static void getlastname() {     system.out.print("what last name of user? ");     lastname = kb.nextline(); }  public static void getfirstname() {        system.out.print("now enter first name:  ");     firstname = kb.nextline(); }  public static void getaddress() {            system.out.print("now enter address: ");     address = kb.nextline(); }  public static void getemail() {        system.out.print("now enter email: ");     email = kb.nextline(); }  public static void getphone() {            system.out.print("lastly, enter phone number in format xxx-xxx-     xxxx: ");     phone = kb.nextline(); }  //--------display methods-------- public static void displayname() {            system.out.printf("\nname:%15s %s", firstname, lastname); }  public static void displayaddress() {            system.out.printf("\naddress:%12s", address); }  public static void displayemailphone() {        system.out.printf("\nemail:%14s", email);     system.out.printf("\nphone:%14s", phone); } } 

output results:

name:           john smith address:1234 street, city, state 12345 email:useremail@email.com phone:  123-456-7890 

what problem? want rest of information line name.

so when "%15s" you're saying make field 15 characters wide, prepended spaces if need be. works name - there's bunch of spaces , name.

the address, though, far more 14 characters, no spaces in front of it. (note not truncate @ 14; 14 minimum width here.)

you haven't defined mean "line up" though... want "1234" directly under "john"? in case, need add spaces printf string, , skip width specifiers (change "%s" instead of "%15s").

if instead, want zip code "12345" under "smith", you'll need vastly increase width specifiers. width specifier plus prefix ("name:" or "address:") need add same number. example, use "%50s" name , use "%47s" address (since there 3 more characters in "address:" there in "name:").