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<refentry xml:id="function.str-pad" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>str_pad</refname>
  <refpurpose>Pad a string to a certain length with another string</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 
 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>string</type><methodname>str_pad</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>string</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam><type>int</type><parameter>length</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>string</type><parameter>pad_string</parameter><initializer>" "</initializer></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>int</type><parameter>pad_type</parameter><initializer><constant>STR_PAD_RIGHT</constant></initializer></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para>
   This function returns the <parameter>string</parameter> string
   padded on the left, the right, or both sides to the specified
   padding length. If the optional argument
   <parameter>pad_string</parameter> is not supplied, the
   <parameter>string</parameter> is padded with spaces, otherwise it
   is padded with characters from <parameter>pad_string</parameter>
   up to the limit.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>string</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The input string.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>length</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The desired length of the final padded string.
       If the value of <parameter>length</parameter> is negative,
       less than, or equal to the length of the input string, no padding
       takes place, and <parameter>string</parameter> will be returned.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>pad_string</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <note>
       <para>
        The <parameter>pad_string</parameter> may be truncated if the
        required number of padding characters can't be evenly divided by the
        <parameter>pad_string</parameter>'s length.
       </para>
      </note>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>pad_type</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Optional argument <parameter>pad_type</parameter> can be
       <constant>STR_PAD_RIGHT</constant>, <constant>STR_PAD_LEFT</constant>,
       or <constant>STR_PAD_BOTH</constant>. If
       <parameter>pad_type</parameter> is not specified it is assumed to be
       <constant>STR_PAD_RIGHT</constant>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   Returns the padded string.
  </para>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1 role="examples">
  &reftitle.examples;
  <para>
   <example>
    <title><function>str_pad</function> example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$input = "Alien";
echo str_pad($input, 10);                      // produces "Alien     "
echo str_pad($input, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT);  // produces "-=-=-Alien"
echo str_pad($input, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH);   // produces "__Alien___"
echo str_pad($input,  6, "___");               // produces "Alien_"
echo str_pad($input,  3, "*");                 // produces "Alien"
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="seealso">
  &reftitle.seealso;
  <para>
   <simplelist>
    <member><function>mb_str_pad</function></member>
   </simplelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>
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