How can I format the string according to its length at runtime?

[ed_tsang at yahoo.com]

How can I format the string but according to the length it has?

I have the following code:

l = 6 - len(str(values))
printwrite(trcfile, "Rx value = %-5s (0x%-6X)-  OK\n"%(str(values), 
values),tag )

Currently I displays:

Check       : TPreason = 120 (0x78)                   Rx value = 
120   (0x78    )-  OK

function printwrite is just a wrapper function of sys.file.write and 
print that prints the info to the screen, or a trace window and to a 
file accordingly. The string formmating is he same as the python doc.

values in the above code is a integer number.
The above statement tries to diplay the input string [ from str
(values ] and convert values to be displayed as hexadecimal. 

My problem is when it displayed in hexadecimal, there are extra 
spacing because it of the statement 0x%-6X when the lengeth of values 
is 3. But I will no know in advance what is the length of values, it 
can reach 6. How can I dynmically alter the number of spaces in this 
case?

Thanks