(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
str_pad — Pad a string to a certain length with another string
$string,$length,$pad_string = " ",$pad_type = STR_PAD_RIGHT
   This function returns the string string
   padded on the left, the right, or both sides to the specified
   padding length. If the optional argument
   pad_string is not supplied, the
   string is padded with spaces, otherwise it
   is padded with characters from pad_string
   up to the limit.
  
stringThe input string.
length
       The desired length of the final padded 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_stringNote:
The
pad_stringmay be truncated if the required number of padding characters can't be evenly divided by thepad_string's length.
pad_type
       Optional argument pad_type can be
       STR_PAD_RIGHT, STR_PAD_LEFT,
       or STR_PAD_BOTH. If
       pad_type is not specified it is assumed to be
       STR_PAD_RIGHT.
      
Returns the padded string.
Example #1 str_pad() example
<?php
$input = "Alien";
echo str_pad($input, 10), PHP_EOL;                      // produces "Alien     "
echo str_pad($input, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT), PHP_EOL;  // produces "-=-=-Alien"
echo str_pad($input, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH), PHP_EOL;   // produces "__Alien___"
echo str_pad($input,  6, "___"), PHP_EOL;               // produces "Alien_"
echo str_pad($input,  3, "*"), PHP_EOL;                 // produces "Alien"
?>