Hi,

I am somewhat new to .net and c#. (What I learned in previous co has to
be unlearned).  I am doing something that seems simple but I think there
is a better way than how I learned to do it.  I am creating a fixed
length file with fixed length fields.  Each field either requires
leading zeros or added on spaces.  I learned to create a helper class
and for every field do this:
      public static string FormatFieldA(string str12)
       {
           if (str12 == null || str12.Trim() == "")
           //Default spaces required length = 12
           {
               return "            ";
           }
           else
           {
               Int32 l = 12 - str12.Trim().Length;
               if (l != 0)
                   for (int i = 1; i <= l; i++)
                   {
                       str12 = str12 + " ";
                   }
               return str12;

           }    
       }
I think there must be a better way like specifying in the Header or
Detail class for each field the field length and whether leadingzero is
t/f and then pass each field with those values to a simple format
function.  But I don't know if that is the best way and I don't know how
to assign those constants. Could someone help?  I want to do this well.