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#### 9.4.1 Formatting Basics

Each ‘`%`’ element will be replaced by some string or other when the buffer in question is generated. ‘`%5y`’ means “insert the ‘`y`’ spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field”.

As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical modifier between the ‘`%`’ and the formatting type character will pad the output so that it is always at least that long. ‘`%5y`’ will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by padding with spaces to the left. If you say ‘`%-5y`’, it will pad to the right instead.

You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against particularly wide values. For that you can say ‘`%4,6y`’, which means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never less than 4 characters wide.

Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as ‘`%&user-date;`’.