bug#12866: 24.3.50; (elisp) `%-Constructs': padded with spaces to the right or left?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:35:02 -0800
> 
> The Info node says this near the top:
>  
>  In any construct except `%%', you can add a decimal integer after the
>  `%' to specify a minimum field width.  If the width is less, the field
>  is padded with spaces to the right.
>  
> >From what I can see, it pads with spaces to the left of the field, not
> the right.  For example:
>  
> (set (make-local-variable 'mode-line-position) '("%40l"))
>  
> It seems to me that that pads the line number with spaces on the left,
> not the right.  But perhaps I'm missing something.

I think string formats, like %s, are padded to the right.  IOW, the
padding behaves like in C.