Pad Text

The XML encoding and decoding functions posted yesterday call a function pad() which is below.

Padding is the process of adding extra text to ( typically ) the front of a string of numbers to make the string a certain length.

This is a generic function to pad any thing that can be converted to a string to a specified count of digits.

It is unique in that it allows anything to be used as a pad character, though zero padding is the default.

Called by the of epsEntitify() function. That posting can be found here.

function pad ( orig , count , padWith ) {

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- P A D

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Generic: Yes!

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Purpose: to pad the 'orig' number or string to a fixed 'count'

//-- characters or digits using the 'padWith' character

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Returns a string (even if it doesn't need to be padded)

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Sample Calls:

//-- p = pad (7,3,0) ; // '007'

//-- p = pad (21,1) ; // '21'

//-- p = pad ('Right',10,' ') ; // ' Right'

//-- p = pad ('Left',0,' ' ) ; // 'Left'

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Written 2009.05.01 at the PDX airport by Jon S. Winters

//-- eps@electronicpublishingsupport.com

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Check arguments

//--default of zero as string

var padChar = "0" ;

//-- but if they sent something, use the first character of it

if ( padWith != undefined ) { padChar = String (padWith).substr (0,1) ; }

//-- Convert to a string (actually adding the "" to it would have worked.)

var withThis = String ( orig ) + '' ;

//-- Check its length, with it is long enought return. Until then keep

//-- adding the padChar

while ( count > withThis.length) {

withThis = padChar + withThis;

}

//-- Back to the caller

return withThis;

}

//