With printf I can decide how many space characters should be before the variable i that I want to print. In the example below, it is 10. Is it possible to have there a variable instead of the number 10? So that the spaces characters depend on the value of a variable?
System.out.printf("%10d" , i);
The format string is still a string, so assuming a width variable System.out.printf("%" + width + "d", x); does the trick.
So for example
var width = 10; var x = 123;
System.out.printf("%" + width + "d", x);
prints 123 (7 leading spaces + 3 digits = 10), while
var width = 3; var x = 123;
System.out.printf("%" + width + "d", x);
prints 123
Define a lambda to create the desired width and then call that prior to printing the value.
Function<Integer, String> format = width-> "%%%dd\n".formatted(width);
int x = 4567;
System.out.printf(format.apply(10),x);
System.out.printf(format.apply(5),x);
// or create it once for multiple printf calls.
String form = format.apply(3);
System.out.printf(form, 2);
System.out.printf(form, 4);
prints
4567
4567
2
4
%%%dd - the first % escapes the second so on the last %d formats the width value.printf statement