question: protected void align ( String [ ] [ ] strings ) { int rows = strings . length ; int columns = 0 ; if ( rows > 0 ) columns = strings [ 0 ] . length ; int [ ] maxColWidth = new int [ columns ] ; int [ ] maxColLead = null ; boolean isDecimal = alignment . equals ( DECIMAL ) ; if ( isDecimal ) maxColLead = new int [ columns ] ; for ( int column = 0 ; column < columns ; column ++ ) { int maxWidth = minColumnWidth ; int maxLead = Integer . MIN_VALUE ; for ( int row = 0 ; row < rows ; row ++ ) { String s = strings [ row ] [ column ] ; maxWidth = Math . max ( maxWidth , s . length ( ) ) ; if ( isDecimal ) maxLead = Math . max ( maxLead , lead ( s ) ) ; } maxColWidth [ column ] = maxWidth ; if ( isDecimal ) maxColLead [ column ] = maxLead ; } for ( int row = 0 ; row < rows ; row ++ ) { alignRow ( strings [ row ] , maxColWidth , maxColLead ) ; } }
target:  Modifies the strings in a column of the string matrix to be aligned (left,centered,right,decimal).