PHP str_pad() Function

The PHP str_pad() function returns the 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 whitespaces, otherwise it is padded with characters from pad_string up to given length.

Syntax

str_pad(string, length, pad_string, pad_type)

Parameters

`string`	`Required.` Specify the input string.
`length`	`Required.` Specify the new string length. If it is negative, less than, or equal to the length of the string, no padding takes place, and string will be returned.
`pad_string`	`Optional.` Specify the string to use for padding. Default is whitespace.
`pad_type`	`Optional.` Specify which side to pad. Possible values are: STR_PAD_RIGHT: Pad to the right side of the string. STR_PAD_LEFT: Pad to the left side of the string. STR_PAD_BOTH: Pad to both side of the string. If not an even number, the right side will get the extra padding. Default is STR_PAD_RIGHT.

Return Value

Returns the padded string.

Example:

The example below shows the usage of str_pad() function.

<?php
$str = "Hello";

//returns: "Hello     "
echo str_pad($str, 10)."\n"; 

//returns: "-=-=-Hello"
echo str_pad($str, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT)."\n"; 

//returns: "__Hello___"
echo str_pad($str, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH)."\n";

//returns: "Hello*"
echo str_pad($str, 7, "*")."\n";

//returns: "Hello"
echo str_pad($str, 3, "#")."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Hello     
-=-=-Hello
__Hello___
Hello**
Hello

❮ PHP String Reference