Strings

Pad strings

Sometimes I need to display results in columns. Using tabs may help but isn't exactly "fail-safe".

For that reason I wrote the VBScript functions LeftPad and RightPad.

Some examples to explain their usage:

myString = "ABCDEF"
WScript.Echo Left( myString, 3 )
WScript.Echo Left( myString, 9 )

will display:

ABC
ABCDEF

myString = "ABCDEF"
WScript.Echo LeftPad( myString, 3, "+" )
WScript.Echo LeftPad( myString, 9, "+" )

will display:

ABC
ABCDEF+++

LeftPad will often be used to pad strings with spaces.

RightPad is LeftPad's counterpart:

myString = "ABCDEF"
WScript.Echo Right( myString, 3 )
WScript.Echo Right( myString, 9 )

will display:

DEF
ABCDEF

myString = "ABCDEF"
WScript.Echo RightPad( myString, 3, "+" )
WScript.Echo RightPad( myString, 9, "+" )

will display:

ABC
+++ABCDEF

RightPad will often be used to pad numbers (in strings) with zeroes.

Look at this combination:

Dim arrName(1)
Dim arrAge(1)
arrName(0) = "John Doe"
arrName(1) = "Vanessa James"
arrAge(0)  = 9
arrAge(1)  = 65
WScript.Echo LeftPad( "NAME:", 20, " " ) & RightPad( "AGE:", 4, " " )
For i = 0 To UBound( arrName )
	WScript.Echo LeftPad( arrName(i), 20, " " ) & RightPad( arrAge(i), 4, " " )
Next

will display:

NAME:               AGE:
John Doe               9
Vanessa James         65

LeftPad, optionally combined with RightPad, is perfect for displaying lists, e.g. WMI class properties and their values.

VBScript code:

Function LeftPad( strText, intLen, chrPad )
    'LeftPad( "1234", 7, "x" ) = "1234xxx"
    'LeftPad( "1234", 3, "x" ) = "123"
    LeftPad = Left( strText & String( intLen, chrPad ), intLen )
End Function

Function RightPad( strText, intLen, chrPad )
    'RightPad( "1234", 7, "x" ) = "xxx1234"
    'RightPad( "1234", 3, "x" ) = "234"
    RightPad = Right( String( intLen, chrPad ) & strText, intLen )
End Function

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