pad()

pad(str, length, chars?): string

Pads string on the left and right sides if it's shorter than length.

DEPRECATED

Use padStart and padEnd combination directly instead.

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Parameters

str: string | null | undefined

The string to pad.

length: number | null | undefined

The target length.

chars?: string = " "

The string used as padding.

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Returns: string

The padded string.

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See Also

• String.padStart() - MDN
• String.padEnd() - MDN

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Since

2.0.0

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Also known as

pad (Lodash, es-toolkit) · ❌ (Remeda, Radashi, Ramda, Effect, Modern Dash, Antfu)

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Example

// ❌ Deprecated approach
pad('abc', 8);           // => '  abc   '
pad('abc', 8, '_-');     // => '_-abc_-_'
pad('abc', 3);           // => 'abc'

// ✅ Recommended approach
const str = 'abc';
const length = 8;
const padLength = Math.max(0, length - str.length);
const leftPad = Math.floor(padLength / 2);
const rightPad = padLength - leftPad;
str.padStart(str.length + leftPad).padEnd(length);
// => '  abc   '

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How it works?

Pads string on both sides to target length. Deprecated: Use padStart() and padEnd() combination.

Native Equivalent

// ❌ pad(str, length, chars)
// ✅ str.padStart((str.length + length) / 2, chars).padEnd(length, chars)

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Use Cases

Pad to fixed width 📌

Pad string to fixed length.

#pad#fixed#width#format

"5".padStart(3, "0");   // => "005"
"5".padEnd(3, "0");     // => "500"

Format numbers

Add leading zeros.

#format#numbers#leading#zeros

const id = String(num).padStart(5, "0");
// 42 => "00042"

Align text

Create aligned columns.

#align#text#columns#table

const label = name.padEnd(20);
const value = price.padStart(10);