perlfaq4: How do I pad a string with blanks or pad a number with zeroes?

* added examples that use the * conversion in sprintf


Index: perlfaq4.pod
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/public/perlfaq/perlfaq4.pod,v
retrieving revision 1.39
diff -u -d -r1.39 perlfaq4.pod
--- perlfaq4.pod        3 Jan 2003 20:06:21 -0000       1.39
+++ perlfaq4.pod        18 Jan 2003 20:15:58 -0000
@@ -811,9 +811,6 @@
 
 =head2 How do I pad a string with blanks or pad a number with zeroes?
 
-(This answer contributed by Uri Guttman, with kibitzing from
-Bart Lateur.)
-
 In the following examples, C<$pad_len> is the length to which you wish
 to pad the string, C<$text> or C<$num> contains the string to be
padded,
 and C<$pad_char> contains the padding character. You can use a single
@@ -828,13 +825,16 @@
 C<$pad_len>.
 
     # Left padding a string with blanks (no truncation):
-    $padded = sprintf("%${pad_len}s", $text);
+       $padded = sprintf("%${pad_len}s", $text);
+       $padded = sprintf("%*s", $pad_len, $text);  # same thing
 
     # Right padding a string with blanks (no truncation):
-    $padded = sprintf("%-${pad_len}s", $text);
-
+       $padded = sprintf("%-${pad_len}s", $text);
+       $padded = sprintf("%-*s", $pad_len, $text); # same thing
+
     # Left padding a number with 0 (no truncation):
-    $padded = sprintf("%0${pad_len}d", $num);
+       $padded = sprintf("%0${pad_len}d", $num);
+       $padded = sprintf("%0*d", $pad_len, $num); # same thing
 
     # Right padding a string with blanks using pack (will truncate):
     $padded = pack("A$pad_len",$text);

-- 
brian d foy, [email protected]