Is it possible to align a print statement to the center in Python?

Question

I was wondering if it was possible to align a print statement in Python (newest version). For example:

print ("hello world")

would appear on the user's screen on the left side, so can i make it centre-aligned instead?

Thank you so much for your help!

= 80 (column) x 30 ( width)

https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#str.center if you know the console's width. — Jasper, Nov 08 '15 at 14:22

Remi Guan · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-08T14:33:02.110

18

First, use os.get_terminal_size() function to get the console's width(so you don't need to know your console before):

>>> import os
>>> os.get_terminal_size()
os.terminal_size(columns=80, lines=24)
>>> os.get_terminal_size().columns
80
>>> os.get_terminal_size().columns  # after I changed my console's width
97
>>>

Then, we can use str.center():

>>> import os
>>> print("hello world".center(os.get_terminal_size().columns))
                                  hello world                                  
>>>

So the clear code looks like:

import os

width = os.get_terminal_size().columns
print("hello world".center(width))

edited Nov 08 '15 at 14:33

answered Nov 08 '15 at 14:26

Remi Guan

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If you want to use Python to do that, the answer is **No**. Because Python is running inside the console. – Remi Guan Nov 08 '15 at 14:42
@KtEwing do you mean specify a console size independently to the real console size ? – Xavier Combelle Nov 08 '15 at 14:44
If you want to do that, then I don't know. But that would be very interesting. – Remi Guan Nov 08 '15 at 14:46
on linux, you can call wmctrl to set the size and position of a terminal window (not a python command, but a separate program, but you could call it with subprocess or something maybe) – George Nov 08 '15 at 14:56
@KtEwing just replace `width = os.get_terminal_size().columns` by `width = 50` or whatever value you want for the width – Xavier Combelle Nov 08 '15 at 15:38
Can't figure why this does not work with "\nHello World\n"? – Anand Nov 01 '20 at 15:36

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '15 at 14:27

5

Knowing the console width, you can also print centered using format:

 # console width is 50 
 print "{: ^50s}".format("foo")

will print 'foo' in the middle of a 50-column console.

answered Nov 08 '15 at 14:27

Karl Barker

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In Python 3.6+ you can do this with f-strings: `print(f"{: ^50s}")` – TheTechRobo the Nerd Oct 11 '20 at 01:08

Is it possible to align a print statement to the center in Python?

2 Answers2

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