Question : Awk - printing fixed width lines

Using, AWK, I need to print out lines that are fixed width.  I'll have 4 columns of various lengths.  In the output, each columns will have a specific starting position and spaces till the start of the next column.
For example, if:
$1=12345
$2=This is a test
$3= (blank)
$4=999


Then output:
12345    This is a test          999    \n(EndOfLine)
^        ^                  ^    ^
$1       $2                 $3   $4

Notice that some columns could be blank.

Anyone have a ideas?

Answer : Awk - printing fixed width lines

Use awk's printf function for output and specificy widths in the format
Something like this:

printf("%-9s%-19s%-5s\n", $1, $2, $3, $4);