#!usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $string_a="ABCDEGFH";
my $string_b="X";

printf("%-5s%s\n", $string_a, $string_b);  #$string_a is too long
printf("%-5s %s\n", $string_a, $string_b); #space between fields
printf("%-5s%s\n", $string_b, $string_a); #looks ok, but not! 
                                          #If $string_b>=5 chars!
                                          #no space between columns.

__END__
prints:

ABCDEGFHX
ABCDEGFH X
X    ABCDEGFH