<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision: 1.5 $ -->
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  <refentry id="function.str-pad">
   <refnamediv>
    <refname>str_pad</refname>
    <refpurpose>
     Pad a string to a certain length with another string
    </refpurpose>
   </refnamediv>
   <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>
     <methodsynopsis>
      <type>string</type><methodname>str_pad</methodname>
      <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>input</parameter></methodparam>
      <methodparam><type>int</type><parameter>pad_length</parameter></methodparam>
      <methodparam choice="opt"><type>string</type><parameter>pad_string</parameter></methodparam>
      <methodparam choice="opt"><type>int</type><parameter>pad_type</parameter></methodparam>
     </methodsynopsis>
    <para>
     This functions returns the <parameter>input</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>input</parameter> is padded with spaces, otherwise it
     is padded with characters from <parameter>pad_string</parameter>
     up to the limit.
    </para>
    <para>
     Optional argument <parameter>pad_type</parameter> can be
     STR_PAD_RIGHT, STR_PAD_LEFT, or STR_PAD_BOTH.  If
     <parameter>pad_type</parameter> is not specified it is assumed to
     be STR_PAD_RIGHT.
    </para>
    <para>
     If the value of <parameter>pad_length</parameter> is negative or
     less than the length of the input string, no padding takes place.
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title><function>str_pad</function> example</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$input = "Alien";
print str_pad($input, 10);                      // produces "Alien     "
print str_pad($input, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT);  // produces "-=-=-Alien"
print str_pad($input, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH);   // produces "__Alien___"
print str_pad($input, 6 , "___");               // produces "Alien_"
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <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>
   </refsect1>
  </refentry>

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