[Tutor] printing columns

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> code that produces a header file for a C++ program, but I've 
> got a simple bit of polish I'd like to put on it. 

> >>> menuItems = ['NEW', 'OPEN', 'CLOSE', 'SAVE', 'SAVEAS', 
> ...
> 'CUSTOMTB', 'CASCADE', 'TILE', 'SPLIT']

> >>> myInt = 1
> >>> for item in menuItems:
> 	print '#define ROB_' + item + '\t\t' + str(myInt)
> 	myInt = myInt + 1
> 
> Now I'm wondering how I could do this a little more neatly, 
> organizing the output into two columns. 

Doesn't your two tabs do exactly that? The other way of 
course would be to create a format string with fixed 
length fields...


The other issue of course is why you are using #defines 
in a C++ program? Surely const would be better?

Or since you are assigning a series of integer values 
use an enum which will do that automatically.

enum codes {NEW=1,
           OPEN,  // automatically assigned 2 etc...
           ...
           TILE,
           SPLIT};

Saves a mite of typing and you can now add new values
easily without worrying about maintaining the numeric 
values etc. And its typesafe, nobody can kid the compiler 
by passing a raw integer pretending to be a code to a 
function which expects a code as input...

Altogether safer and more idiomatic C++.

Alan G.