Is there a JavaScript function that can pad a string to get to a determined length?

Question

I am in need of a JavaScript function which can take a value and pad it to a given length (I need spaces, but anything would do). I found this:

Code:

Answer 1

A short way:

(x=>(new Array(int-x.length+1)).join(char)+x)(String)

Example:

(x=>(new Array(6-x.length+1)).join("0")+x)("1234")

return: "001234"

Answer 2

If you don't mind including a utility library, lodash library has _.pad, _.padLeft and _.padRight functions.

Answer 3

It's 2014, and I suggest a Javascript string-padding function. Ha!

Bare-bones: right-pad with spaces

function pad ( str, length ) {
    var padding = ( new Array( Math.max( length - str.length + 1, 0 ) ) ).join( " " );
    return str + padding;
}

Fancy: pad with options

/**
 * @param {*}       str                         input string, or any other type (will be converted to string)
 * @param {number}  length                      desired length to pad the string to
 * @param {Object}  [opts]
 * @param {string}  [opts.padWith=" "]          char to use for padding
 * @param {boolean} [opts.padLeft=false]        whether to pad on the left
 * @param {boolean} [opts.collapseEmpty=false]  whether to return an empty string if the input was empty
 * @returns {string}
 */
function pad ( str, length, opts ) {
    var padding = ( new Array( Math.max( length - ( str + "" ).length + 1, 0 ) ) ).join( opts && opts.padWith || " " ),
        collapse = opts && opts.collapseEmpty && !( str + "" ).length;
    return collapse ? "" : opts && opts.padLeft ? padding + str : str + padding;
}

Usage (fancy):

pad( "123", 5 );
// returns "123  "

pad( 123, 5 );
// returns "123  " - non-string input

pad( "123", 5, { padWith: "0", padLeft: true } );
// returns "00123"

pad( "", 5 );
// returns "     "

pad( "", 5, { collapseEmpty: true } );
// returns ""

pad( "1234567", 5 );
// returns "1234567"

Answer 4

A little late, but thought I might share anyway. I found it useful to add a prototype extension to Object. That way I can pad numbers and strings, left or right. I have a module with similar utilities I include in my scripts.

// include the module in your script, there is no need to export
var jsAddOns = require('<path to module>/jsAddOns');

~~~~~~~~~~~~ jsAddOns.js ~~~~~~~~~~~~

/* 
 * method prototype for any Object to pad it's toString()
 * representation with additional characters to the specified length
 *
 * @param padToLength required int
 *     entire length of padded string (original + padding)
 * @param padChar optional char
 *     character to use for padding, default is white space
 * @param padLeft optional boolean
 *     if true padding added to left
 *     if omitted or false, padding added to right
 *
 * @return padded string or
 *     original string if length is >= padToLength
 */
Object.prototype.pad = function(padToLength, padChar, padLeft) {    

    // get the string value
    s = this.toString()

    // default padToLength to 0
    // if omitted, original string is returned
    padToLength = padToLength || 0;

    // default padChar to empty space
    padChar = padChar || ' ';


    // ignore padding if string too long
    if (s.length >= padToLength) {
        return s;
    }

    // create the pad of appropriate length
    var pad = Array(padToLength - s.length).join(padChar);

    // add pad to right or left side
    if (padLeft) {
        return pad  + s;        
    } else {
        return s + pad;
    }
};

Answer 5

A faster method

If you are doing this repeatedly, for example to pad values in an array, and performance is a factor, the following approach can give you nearly a 100x advantage in speed (jsPerf) over other solution that are currently discussed on the inter webs. The basic idea is that you are providing the pad function with a fully padded empty string to use as a buffer. The pad function just appends to string to be added to this pre-padded string (one string concat) and then slices or trims the result to the desired length.

function pad(pad, str, padLeft) {
  if (typeof str === 'undefined') 
    return pad;
  if (padLeft) {
    return (pad + str).slice(-pad.length);
  } else {
    return (str + pad).substring(0, pad.length);
  }
}

For example, to zero pad a number to a length of 10 digits,

pad('0000000000',123,true);

To pad a string with whitespace, so the entire string is 255 characters,

var padding = Array(256).join(' '), // make a string of 255 spaces
pad(padding,123,true);

Performance Test

See the jsPerf test here.

And this is faster than ES6 string.repeat by 2x as well, as shown by the revised JsPerf here

Answer 6

ECMAScript 2017 adds a padStart method to the String prototype. This method will pad a string with spaces to a given length. This method also takes an optional string that will be used instead of spaces for padding.

'abc'.padStart(10);         // "       abc"
'abc'.padStart(10, "foo");  // "foofoofabc"
'abc'.padStart(6,"123465"); // "123abc"
'abc'.padStart(8, "0");     // "00000abc"
'abc'.padStart(1);          // "abc"

A padEnd method was also added that works in the same manner.

For browser compatibility (and a useful polyfill) see this link.