How do I align a number like this in C?

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Why is printf("%8d\n", intval); not working for you? It should…

You did not show the format strings for any of your “not working” examples, so I’m not sure what else to tell you.

#include <stdio.h>

int
main(void)
{
        int i;
        for (i = 1; i <= 10000; i*=10) {
                printf("[%8d]\n", i);
        }
        return (0);
}

$ ./printftest
[       1]
[      10]
[     100]
[    1000]
[   10000]

EDIT: response to clarification of question:

#include <math.h>
int maxval = 1000;
int width = round(1+log(maxval)/log(10));
...
printf("%*d\n", width, intval);

The width calculation computes log base 10 + 1, which gives the number of digits. The fancy * allows you to use the variable for a value in the format string.

You still have to know the maximum for any given run, but there’s no way around that in any language or pencil & paper.

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