My previous post showed how to draw tab-delimited text in columns. Unfortunately that method doesn't give you control over how the values in each column are aligned.

This example uses the following code to draw text in columns that can each have a different alignment.

// Draw some text aligned in columns.
private void Form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
    e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint = TextRenderingHint.AntiAlias;

    string headings = "Title\tPrice\t# Pages\tYear";
    string[] lines =
    {
        "Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms\t$60.00\t624\t2013",
        "MCSD Certification Toolkit (Exam 70-483): Programming in C#\t$59.99\t648\t2013",
        "Visual Basic 2012 Programmer's Reference\t$44.99\t840\t2012",
        "Start Here! Fundamentals of Microsoft .NET Programming\t$19.99\t266\t2011",
        "Stephens' C# Programming with Visual Studio 2010 24-Hour Trainer\t$44.99\t552\t2010",
        "WPF Programmer's Reference\t$54.99\t624\t2010",
        "Beginning Database Design Solutions\t$44.99\t552\t2008",
        "Powers of Two\t$2.04\t8\t16",
    };

    // Prepare a StringFormat to use the tabs.
    using (StringFormat string_format = new StringFormat())
    {
        // Define the columns' X coordinates.
        float[] xpos = { 10, 500, 575, 650 };

        // Define the column alignments.
        StringAlignment[] alignments =
        {
            StringAlignment.Near,
            StringAlignment.Far,
            StringAlignment.Far,
            StringAlignment.Far,
        };

        // Draw the headings.
        float margin = 10;
        float y = 10;
        using (Font font = new Font("Times New Roman", 13, FontStyle.Bold))
        {
            string[] strings = headings.Split('\t');
            for (int i = 0; i < strings.Length; i++)
            {
                string_format.Alignment = alignments[i];
                e.Graphics.DrawString(strings[i], font, Brushes.Blue,
                    xpos[i], y, string_format);
            }
        }

        // Draw a horizontal line.
        y += 1.4f * Font.Height;
        float width = xpos[xpos.Length - 1] + 5;
        e.Graphics.DrawLine(Pens.Blue, margin, y, width, y);
        y += 5;

        // Draw the book entries.
        using (Font font = new Font("Times New Roman", 11))
        {
            foreach (string line in lines)
            {
                string[] strings = line.Split('\t');
                for (int i = 0; i < strings.Length; i++)
                {
                    string_format.Alignment = alignments[i];
                    e.Graphics.DrawString(strings[i], font, Brushes.Black,
                        xpos[i], y, string_format);
                }
                y += 1.2f * this.Font.Height;
            }
        }
    }
}

The code first defines the heading labels and the tab-delimited data. It then defines an array of X coordinates for the columns and an array of column alignments.

The code then loops through the column headings. For each heading, the program sets the StringFormat object's Alignment property to properly align the column. The value Near means the text is drawn to the right of the X coordinate used in DrawString. The value Far means the text is drawn on the left of the X coordinate (so the column is aligned on the right).

After it has drawn the column headers, the code draws a horizontal line below them. It then loops through the tab-delimited data and repeats the previous steps to draw each column in each line of text.