irb(main):001:0> sprintf "%05d,%05s", 1, '1'
=> "00001,    1"

    A simple fix (from the 1.6.8 version) would be:
--------------------------------
--- sprintf.c.old       Thu Dec 12 03:16:44 2002

                        CHECK(width);
                        width -= len;
                        if (!(flags&FMINUS)) {
+                           char c = (flags & FZERO) ? '0' : ' ';
                            while (width--) {
-                               buf[blen++] = ' ';
+                               buf[blen++] = c;
                            }
                        }
--------------------------------

    To get around this problem, I ended up using the combination
mystring.rjust(5).tr(' ','0').  This worked for me since my string was
guaranteed not to have any spaces, but if that were not the case, this would
get messy.

    It occurred to me that String#ljust and String#rjust really seem like
they should have an optional second parameter that defaults to ' ', but
could be any character (or any string?).  Anyone else think this is a good
idea?

    - Warren Brown

0      The value should be zero padded.  For d, i, o, u, x, X, a, A, e, E, f,
F, g, and G conversions, the converted value is padded on the left with zeros
rather than blanks.  If the 0 and - flags both appear, the 0 flag is ignored.
If a precision is given with a numeric conversion (d,  i, o, u, x, and X), the
0 flag is ignored.  For other conversions, the behavior is undefined.
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

i think the pickaxe is simply incorrect - the printf function just delegates
to stdlib printf after all.

-a

--

 ====================================
 | Ara Howard
 | NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory
 | Information and Technology Services
 | Data Systems Group
 | R/FST 325 Broadway
 | Boulder, CO 80305-3328

 | Phone:  303-497-7238
 | Fax:    303-497-7259
 ====================================

In message "sprintf() bug"

|    I have run across a discrepancy between the documentation and ruby
|1.6.8.  According to the pickaxe book, the flag character '0' changes
|padding from spaces (' ') to zeros ('0').  This works for numbers, but does
|not work for stings:

Pickaxe is great, but not perfect (nor me).

|    It occurred to me that String#ljust and String#rjust really seem like
|they should have an optional second parameter that defaults to ' ', but
|could be any character (or any string?).  Anyone else think this is a good
|idea?

This sounds nice.  In fact, I have a plan to do so.

                                                        matz.