function - number of charterers?

[KashKurcura]

I need to make sure that my input is a certain number of charterers. For example the word 'PHP', I need to make sure that its 5 chars long so I want the output to be 'PHP--'. I know that i have seen that function but cant seem to find it. Any help?

[weekender]

//how long do you want the string?
$requiredlength = 5;

//the string
$str = "php";

//what do you want to fill the space with?
$fill = "-";

//get the length of $str
$actuallength = strlen($str);

//if string is to short
if($actuallength < $requiredlength){
    //how many characters need padding?
    $padlength = $requiredlength - $actuallength;
    $str = str_pad($str, $padlength, $fill);
}

//if string is too long
if($actuallength > $requiredlength){
    $str = substr($str, 0, $requiredlength);
}

hope that helps

adam

[laserlight]

might be possible to make a slight improvement with:

//how long do you want the string?
$required_len = 5;

//the string
$str = "php";

//what do you want to fill the space with?
$fill = "-";

//get the length of $str
$actual_len = strlen($str);

//if string is too long
if ($actual_len > $required_len) {
	$str = substr($str, 0, $required_len);
}
//if string is too short
elseif ($actual_len < $required_len) {
	//($required_len - $actual_len) is amount of padding
	$str = str_pad($str, $required_len - $actual_len, $fill);
}