Aligning text in the form of vertical list/or a text in C++

Question

I want the following output to get aligned properly in the form of a table:

My attempt: I created a class with member function(a function to display the products available in a store) and member variables. Then in the main function I initialized all the member variables and passed control to the user defined function to provide the output. I have provided some code snippets to support my idea.

class product
{
    public:
        //Characteristics of products
        string batchid;
        string dateofmanu; //dd-mm-yy format
        string name;
        float rate;
        int quantity;
        //User-defined functions
        void add_products();
        void mod_products();
        void del_products();
        void display_productdetails();    
};

Initializing in the main function:

int main()
{
    //Initially we have 5 products
    p[0].batchid = "Bc11256";
    p[0].dateofmanu = "08-01-2021";
    p[0].name = "Parle-G";
    p[0].rate = 25;
    p[0].quantity = 100;
    p[1].batchid = "Ad12506";
    p[1].dateofmanu = "16-01-2021";
    p[1].name = "Sun-Flakes";
    p[1].rate = 58;
    p[1].quantity = 25;
    p[2].batchid = "Af10325";
    p[2].dateofmanu = "25-01-2021";
    p[2].name = "Lays-Blue(PartyPack)";
    p[2].rate = 40;
    p[2].quantity = 100;
    p[3].batchid = "Yk63785";
    p[3].dateofmanu = "12-02-2021";
    p[3].name = "Denim T-shirt(M)";
    p[3].rate = 500;
    p[3].quantity = 50;
    p[4].batchid = "Bc11256";
    p[4].dateofmanu = "08-01-2021";
    p[4].name = "Parle-G";
    p[4].rate = 25;
    p[4].quantity = 100;
    p[4].batchid = "Hj16254";
    p[4].dateofmanu = "19-02-2021";
    p[4].name = "Tupperware WaterBottle(500ml)";
    p[4].rate = 125;
    p[4].quantity = 15;
}

Then passing control to the required user defined member function:

cout<<"The products available in the store are:\n";
                    cout<<setw(15)<<"\t\tProduct Name"<<setw(30)<<"BatchID"<<setw(30)<<"DateOfManufacturing"<<setw(15)<<"Rate"<<setw(10)<<endl;
                    for(i=0;i<5;i++)
                    p[i].display_productdetails();

User defined function to display content to user:

void product::display_productdetails()
{
    cout<<setw(15)<<"\t"<<this->name<<setw(30)<<this->batchid<<setw(30)<<this->dateofmanu<<setw(30) 
    <<this->rate<<endl;
}

Unrelated: There are easier ways to initialize your list of products. [example](https://godbolt.org/z/zMn5Kfd8r) — Ted Lyngmo, Apr 13 '21 at 10:25
What do you intend with the `\t`-characters? Shall not `setw` be responsible for printing fill characters? — Stephan Lechner, Apr 13 '21 at 10:25
The last two code snippets are difficult to read, you should format it better and learn how to split long lines to multiple statements. This will increase your chance that anyone would be willing to look on your code. — Roman Pavelka, Apr 13 '21 at 10:26

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 13 '21 at 10:28

By default when setw is set, << operator uses right-alignment.

By printing TAB characters the right-alignment is broken and the rest of the line gets shifted.

Try to avoid using \t in combination with setw, and set alignment to left in the beginning:

void product::display_productdetails()
{
    cout << left;
    cout << setw(15) << name;
    cout << setw(30) << batchid;
    cout << setw(30) << dateofmanu;
    cout << setw(30) << rate;
    cout << endl;
}

Aligning text in the form of vertical list/or a text in C++

1 Answers1