str_pad()

The str_pad() method returns a string with a new length by making it longer.

Syntax

str_pad($string, $length, $pad_string, $pad_type)

The str_pad() function has two required parameters and two optional parameters:

• $string: Specifies the string to make longer.
• $length: Specifies the length of the return 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: Specifies the string to use for padding. If it’s not declared, it defaults to whitespace.
• $pad_type: Specifies what side to pad the string. The value can be STR_PAD_BOTH, STR_PAD_LEFT, or STR_PAD_RIGHT. If it’s not declared, it defaults to STR_PAD_RIGHT.

The str_pad() function returns a string containing the given $string with a new length based on $length, combining of the given $string with the $pad_string that can be added to the right, left, or both sides of $string.

Example

The following example uses the str_pad() function to add period symbols "." to the right side of the string "hello" until the string has the length of 30:

<?php
  echo str_pad("hello", 30, ".", STR_PAD_RIGHT);
?>

The example will result in the following output:

hello.........................

Codebyte Example

This example is runnable and uses the str_pad() function:

Note: The final echo statement will return the original string to the console due to the second argument of str_pad() being set to 4 which means that the length of the output string is less than the original string.

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