String Functions
PHP Manual

str_pad

Pad a string to a certain length with another string

Description

string str_pad(
    string $string,
    int $length,
    string $pad_string = " ",
    int $pad_type = STR_PAD_RIGHT
)

This function returns the string string padded on the left, the right, or both sides to the specified padding length. If the optional argument pad_string is not supplied, the string is padded with spaces, otherwise it is padded with characters from pad_string up to the limit.

Parameters

string

The input string.

length

The desired length of the final padded string. If the value of length is negative, less than, or equal to the length of the input string, no padding takes place, and string will be returned.

pad_string

Note:

The pad_string may be truncated if the required number of padding characters can't be evenly divided by the pad_string's length.

pad_type

Optional argument pad_type can be STR_PAD_RIGHT, STR_PAD_LEFT, or STR_PAD_BOTH. If pad_type is not specified it is assumed to be STR_PAD_RIGHT.

Return Values

Returns the padded string.

Examples

Example #1 str_pad example

<?php
$input = "Alien";
echo str_pad($input, 10), PHP_EOL;                      // produces "Alien     "
echo str_pad($input, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT), PHP_EOL;  // produces "-=-=-Alien"
echo str_pad($input, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH), PHP_EOL;   // produces "__Alien___"
echo str_pad($input,  6, "___"), PHP_EOL;               // produces "Alien_"
echo str_pad($input,  3, "*"), PHP_EOL;                 // produces "Alien"
?>

See Also

  • mb_str_pad