How to create printf effect in PowerShell - powershell

Question

How can I get my PowerShell script to print the info in tabular format as the script progresses.
In bash I would do this by
printf "%s\t%-15.15s" "Locale" "Jar"
if($verbose);then
printf "%-15.15s %-15.15s" "HelpSet" "Exception"
fi
printf "\t%s\n" "Status"
...
printf "%s\t%-15.15s" $locale $helpFileName
if($verbose); then
printf "%-15.15s %-15.15s" "$helpSetName" ${exclusion[$helpFileName]}
fi
status="OK"
...
if ($fixed); then
status="CORRECTED"
fi
printf "\t%s\n" $status
to get
Locale Jar HelpSet Exception Status
de help_D150 help_D150 CORRECTED
es help_D150 help_D150 OK
fr help_D150 help_D150 OK
it Locale folder not found
nl help_D150 help_D150 CORRECTED
Thanks

Answer 1

Try this out in your PowerShell console:
"{0}`t{1,-15}{2,-15}{3,-15}" -f "Locale", "Jar", "HelpSet", "Exception"
You can use string formatting quite easily from PowerShell.
The -f operator is a PowerShell short cut to the String.Format function, including all the standard and custom formatting .NET types support.

Answer 2

I have accepted Davids answer as that's what I asked for. However, I have chosen to create an object by
try{
add-type #'
namespace FFPS {
public class Data {
public string Locale;
public string JarFile;
public string HelpSet;
public string CorrectName;
public string Status;
}
}
'#
}
catch{}
and then use XML format file to format it as a table
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<Configuration>
<ViewDefinitions>
<View>
<Name>ffps.data</Name>
<ViewSelectedBy>
<TypeName>ffps.data</TypeName>
</ViewSelectedBy>
<TableControl>
<TableHeaders>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Label>Locale</Label>
<Width>6</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Label>Jar File</Label>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Label>Help Set</Label>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Label>Correct Name</Label>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Label>Status</Label>
<Width>100</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
</TableHeaders>
<TableRowEntries>
<TableRowEntry>
<TableColumnItems>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>$_.Locale</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>$_.JarFile</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>$_.HelpSet</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>$_.CorrectName</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<ScriptBlock>$_.Status</ScriptBlock>
</TableColumnItem>
</TableColumnItems>
</TableRowEntry>
</TableRowEntries>
</TableControl>
</View>
</ViewDefinitions>
</Configuration>
and in the code do
$currentFile = New-Object ffps.data
$currentFile.Locale = "DE"
$currentFile.JarFile = "JarFile.Name"
...
$currentFile
to print the entries