How to Add Line Spacing and Numbering to Discord Bot Messages

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1

I’m currently developing a Discord bot using Python and encountering some issues with how the output is formatted. Specifically, I’m looking to update my queue display command so that each entry shows a number before the username and includes appropriate spacing between the entries.

At the moment, the bot’s output displays the queue entries all in a line with no numbers. I would like to incorporate index numbers such as 1, 2, 3 before each username and include some space to separate each user in the list.

Here’s the code I’m working with:

@bot.command(name='list', aliases=['displayqueue'], help='Display current user queue')
async def show_user_queue(ctx):
    user_queue = fetch_server_queue(ctx)
    current_time = datetime.now()
    
    message_embed = discord.Embed(title='Current Queue', colour = discord.Colour.green())
    if len(user_queue) == 0:
        content='No users in queue!'
    else:
        queue_items = []
        for item in user_queue:
            join_time = datetime.strptime(item['timestamp'], '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') 
            waiting_time = (current_time-join_time).seconds / 60

            if item['message']:
                queue_items.append('**{}** *({:.0f} min)*: {}'
                               .format(item['username'], waiting_time, item['message']))
            else:
                queue_items.append('**{}** *({:.0f} min)*'
                               .format(item['username'], waiting_time))
        content='\n'.join(queue_items)

    field_name = 'Queue Members ({})'.format(len(user_queue))
    message_embed.add_field(name=field_name, value=content, inline=False)

    await ctx.send(embed=message_embed)

The current output is quite cramped and not easy to read. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to integrate numbering and spacing to enhance its organization.

2

just wrap your user_queue loop with enumerate() and use the index. change it to for i, item in enumerate(user_queue, 1): then add {}. at the start of your format strings with the index number. works perfectly for numbering.

3

Fix the spacing by adding extra newlines between entries. Use ‘\n\n’.join(queue_items) instead of ‘\n’.join(queue_items) - gives you better visual separation. For numbering, just modify your loop to track position manually or use enumerate like mentioned above. I’ve found that adding markdown formatting like '{}. ’ at the start of each entry makes the numbers pop more in Discord embeds. You could also add padding characters or use Discord’s code block formatting with triple backticks for a table look, but you’ll need to adjust your string formatting to keep everything aligned.

4

I’ve built similar queue systems and found you can get much cleaner formatting with proper indexing and smart whitespace.

When I hit this same problem, I changed how queue_items gets built - added numbering plus better spacing. Skip enumerate and try something like {:2d}. **{}** *({:.0f} min)* instead. The {:2d} gives you right-aligned numbers that look professional even with double digits.

For spacing, use Discord’s markdown better. Thin space characters or \n with a zero-width space gives you way more control than just double newlines.

One heads up - Discord caps embed field values at 2048 characters. If your queue gets long, you’ll need pagination or truncation to avoid errors.