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<title>Pad a string to a certain length with another string</title>
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<h1 class="refname">str_pad</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">str_pad</span> — <span class="dc-title">Pad a string to a certain length with another string</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.str-pad-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>str_pad</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$input</code></span>
, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$pad_length</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$pad_string</code><span class="initializer"> = " "</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$pad_type</code><span class="initializer"> = STR_PAD_RIGHT</span></span>
]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
This functions returns the <em><code class="parameter">input</code></em> string
padded on the left, the right, or both sides to the specified
padding length. If the optional argument
<em><code class="parameter">pad_string</code></em> is not supplied, the
<em><code class="parameter">input</code></em> is padded with spaces, otherwise it
is padded with characters from <em><code class="parameter">pad_string</code></em>
up to the limit.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.str-pad-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">input</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The input string.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">pad_length</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
If the value of <em><code class="parameter">pad_length</code></em> is negative,
less than, or equal to the length of the input string, no padding
takes place.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">pad_string</code></em></span>
<dd>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
The <em><code class="parameter">pad_string</code></em> may be truncated if the
required number of padding characters can't be evenly divided by the
<em><code class="parameter">pad_string</code></em>'s length.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">pad_type</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Optional argument <em><code class="parameter">pad_type</code></em> can be
<strong><code>STR_PAD_RIGHT</code></strong>, <strong><code>STR_PAD_LEFT</code></strong>,
or <strong><code>STR_PAD_BOTH</code></strong>. If
<em><code class="parameter">pad_type</code></em> is not specified it is assumed to be
<strong><code>STR_PAD_RIGHT</code></strong>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.str-pad-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns the padded string.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.str-pad-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-4876">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>str_pad()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$input </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Alien"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">str_pad</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$input</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">10</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// produces "Alien "<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">str_pad</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$input</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">10</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"-="</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">STR_PAD_LEFT</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// produces "-=-=-Alien"<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">str_pad</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$input</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">10</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"_"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">STR_PAD_BOTH</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// produces "__Alien___"<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">str_pad</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$input</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">6 </span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"___"</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// produces "Alien_"<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
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