So, I have successfully written the Fibonacci sequence to create an array with the sequence of numbers, but I need to know the length (how many digits) the 500th number has.
I've tried the below code, but its finding the length of the scientific notation (22 digits), not the proper 105 it should be returning.
Any ideas how to convert a scientific notation number into an actual integer?
var fiblength = function fiblength(nth) {
var temparr = [0,1];
for(var i = 2; i<=nth; i++){
var prev = temparr[temparr.length-2],
cur = temparr[temparr.length-1],
next = prev + cur;
temparr.push(next);
}
var final = temparr[temparr.length-1].toString().length;
console.log(temparr[temparr.length-1]);
return final;
};
a = fiblength(500);
console.log(a);
Why not use the simple procedure of dividing the number by 10 until the number is less than 1.
Something as simple as this should work (a recursive def obv works as well)
function getDigits(n) {
var digits = 0;
while(n >= 1) {
n/=10;
digits += 1;
}
return digits;
}
getDigits(200);//3
getDigits(3.2 * 10e20);//=>22
Here's a solution in constant time:
function fiblength(n) {
return Math.floor((n>1)?n*.2089+.65051:1);
}
Let's explain how I arrived to it.
All previous solutions will probably not work for N>300 unless you have a BigNumber library in place. Also they're pretty inneficient.
There is a formula to get any Fibonacci number, which uses PHI (golden ratio number), it's very simple:
F(n) = ABS((PHI^n)/sqrt(5))
Where PHI=1.61803399 (golden ratio, found all over the fibonacci sequence)
If you want to know how many digits a number has, you calculate the log base 10 and add 1 to that. Let's call that function D(n) = log10(n) + 1
So what you want fiblength to be is in just the following function
fiblength(n) = D(F(n)) // number of digits of a fibonacci number...
Let's work it out, so you see what the one liner code will be like once you use math.
Substitute F(n)
fiblength(n) = D(ABS((PHI^n)/sqrt(5)))
Now apply D(n) on that:
fiblength(n) = log10(ABS((PHI^n)/sqrt(5))) + 1
So, since log(a/b) = log(a) - log(b)
fiblength(n) = log10(ABS((PHI^n))) - log10(sqrt(5))) + 1
and since log(a^n) = n * log(a)
fiblength(n) = n*log10(PHI) - log10(sqrt(5))) + 1
Then we evaluate those logarithms since they're all on constants
and add the special cases of n=0 and n=1 to return 1
function fiblength(n) {
return Math.floor((n>1)?n*.2089+.65051:1);
}
Enjoy :)
fiblength(500) => 105 //no iterations necessary.
Most of the javascript implementations, internally use 64 bit numbers. So, if the number we are trying to represent is very big, it uses scientific notation to represent those numbers. So, there is no pure "javascript numbers" based solution for this. You may have to look for other BigNum libraries.
As far as your code is concerned, you want only the 500th number, so you don't have to store the entire array of numbers in memory, just previous and current numbers are enough.
function fiblength(nth) {
var previous = 0, current = 1, temp;
for(var i = 2; i<=nth; i++){
temp = current;
current = previous + current;
previous = temp;
}
return current;
};
My Final Solution
function fiblength(nth) {
var a = 0, b = 1, c;
for(var i=2;i<=nth;i++){
c=b;
b=a+b;
a=c;
}
return Math.floor(Math.log(b)/Math.log(10))+1;
}
console.log(fiblength(500));
Thanks for the help!!!
The problem is because the resulting number was converted into a string before any meaningful calculations could be made. Here's how it could have been solved in the original code:
var fiblength = function fiblength(nth) {
var temparr = [0,1];
for(var i = 2; i<=nth; i++){
var prev = temparr[temparr.length-2],
cur = temparr[temparr.length-1],
next = prev + cur;
temparr.push(next);
}
var x = temparr[temparr.length-1];
console.log(x);
var length = 1;
while (x > 1) {
length = length + 1;
x = x/10;
}
return length;
};
console.log ( fiblength(500) );
function test(a, b){
a = a + 2;
b = b + 5;
}
var a = 1;
var b = 2;
test(a, b);
console.log(a);
console.log(b);
This return 1 and 2, but i would like 3 and 7.
Is possible to make two operation in one function? This working if i use return, but how to use return to two operation?
live: http://jsfiddle.net/anCq6/
The reason you are getting 1 and 2 instead of 3 and 7 is because there are two different a and b variables. There's the a and b you declared outside the function, and there is the a and b which represent the values you passed into the function. (Basically, the parameters declared in the function's parentheses are newly declared variables.)
If you want to change the external a and b, change your test function to the following:
function test(x, y) {
a = x + 2;
b = y + 5;
}
Or, alternatively, don't pass a reference into the function, so that the a and b in the inner scope refer to the same a and b as the outer scope:
function test() {
a = a + 2;
b = b + 5;
}
Just send it back as an object...
function test(a, b){
a = a + 2;
b = b + 5;
return {a:a,b:b};
}
var a = 1;
var b = 2;
var test = test(a, b);
alert(test.a);
alert(test.b);
DEMO HERE
This doesn't work because since numbers are passed by value and not by reference, you're modifying the local copies of those variables, however the ones in the outer scope remain unmodified.
If you remove the a and b parameters from your function, you'll get the behavior that you want since the a and b parameters that are being modified will be the ones in the outer scope.
What are references?
Here's a pretty decent answer - Javascript by reference vs. by value
In short, only objects and arrays are passed by reference. Although in reality it's more complex than this depending on how functions are defined and syntax, at this point you can assume that anything that's defined by calling new or the syntactic shorthands [] ( array ) and {} ( object ) are passed by reference. Other types like numbers and strings are passed by value.
Another solution: because of how variable scope works in JavaScript, you can just remove the parameters of "test" function and it will work.
function test(){
a = a + 2;
b = b + 5;
}
function test(){
a = a + 2;
b = b + 5;
}
var a = 1;
var b = 2;
test();
console.log(a);
console.log(b);
This question already has answers here:
How can I pad a value with leading zeros?
(76 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
In JavaScript, I need to have padding.
For example, if I have the number 9, it will be "0009". If I have a number of say 10, it will be "0010". Notice how it will always contain four digits.
One way to do this would be to subtract the number minus 4 to get the number of 0s I need to put.
Is there was a slicker way of doing this?
ES2017 Update
You can use the built-in String.prototype.padStart()
n = 9;
String(n).padStart(4, '0'); // '0009'
n = 10;
String(n).padStart(4, '0'); // '0010'
Not a lot of "slick" going on so far:
function pad(n, width, z) {
z = z || '0';
n = n + '';
return n.length >= width ? n : new Array(width - n.length + 1).join(z) + n;
}
When you initialize an array with a number, it creates an array with the length set to that value so that the array appears to contain that many undefined elements. Though some Array instance methods skip array elements without values, .join() doesn't, or at least not completely; it treats them as if their value is the empty string. Thus you get a copy of the zero character (or whatever "z" is) between each of the array elements; that's why there's a + 1 in there.
Example usage:
pad(10, 4); // 0010
pad(9, 4); // 0009
pad(123, 4); // 0123
pad(10, 4, '-'); // --10
function padToFour(number) {
if (number<=9999) { number = ("000"+number).slice(-4); }
return number;
}
Something like that?
Bonus incomprehensible-but-slicker single-line ES6 version:
let padToFour = number => number <= 9999 ? `000${number}`.slice(-4) : number;
ES6isms:
let is a block-scoped variable (as opposed to var’s functional scoping)
=> is an arrow function that, among other things, replaces function and is prepended by its parameters
If an arrow function takes a single parameter, you can omit the parentheses (hence number =>)
If an arrow function body has a single line that starts with return, you can omit the braces and the return keyword and simply use the expression
To get the function body down to a single line, I cheated and used a ternary expression
Try:
String.prototype.lpad = function(padString, length) {
var str = this;
while (str.length < length)
str = padString + str;
return str;
}
Now test:
var str = "5";
alert(str.lpad("0", 4)); //result "0005"
var str = "10"; // note this is string type
alert(str.lpad("0", 4)); //result "0010"
DEMO
In ECMAScript 2017 , we have new method padStart and padEnd which has below syntax.
"string".padStart(targetLength [,padString]):
So now we can use
const str = "5";
str.padStart(4, "0"); // "0005"
Funny, I recently had to do this.
function padDigits(number, digits) {
return Array(Math.max(digits - String(number).length + 1, 0)).join(0) + number;
}
Use like:
padDigits(9, 4); // "0009"
padDigits(10, 4); // "0010"
padDigits(15000, 4); // "15000"
Not beautiful, but effective.
You did say you had a number-
String.prototype.padZero= function(len, c){
var s= '', c= c || '0', len= (len || 2)-this.length;
while(s.length<len) s+= c;
return s+this;
}
Number.prototype.padZero= function(len, c){
return String(this).padZero(len,c);
}
You could do something like this:
function pad ( num, size ) {
return ( Math.pow( 10, size ) + ~~num ).toString().substring( 1 );
}
Edit: This was just a basic idea for a function, but to add support for larger numbers (as well as invalid input), this would probably be better:
function pad ( num, size ) {
if (num.toString().length >= size) return num;
return ( Math.pow( 10, size ) + Math.floor(num) ).toString().substring( 1 );
}
This does 2 things:
If the number is larger than the specified size, it will simply return the number.
Using Math.floor(num) in place of ~~num will support larger numbers.
This is not really 'slick' but it's faster to do integer operations than to do string concatenations for each padding 0.
function ZeroPadNumber ( nValue )
{
if ( nValue < 10 )
{
return ( '000' + nValue.toString () );
}
else if ( nValue < 100 )
{
return ( '00' + nValue.toString () );
}
else if ( nValue < 1000 )
{
return ( '0' + nValue.toString () );
}
else
{
return ( nValue );
}
}
This function is also hardcoded to your particular need (4 digit padding), so it's not generic.
For fun, instead of using a loop to create the extra zeros:
function zeroPad(n,length){
var s=n+"",needed=length-s.length;
if (needed>0) s=(Math.pow(10,needed)+"").slice(1)+s;
return s;
}
Since you mentioned it's always going to have a length of 4, I won't be doing any error checking to make this slick. ;)
function pad(input) {
var BASE = "0000";
return input ? BASE.substr(0, 4 - Math.ceil(input / 10)) + input : BASE;
}
Idea: Simply replace '0000' with number provided... Issue with that is, if input is 0, I need to hard-code it to return '0000'. LOL.
This should be slick enough.
JSFiddler: http://jsfiddle.net/Up5Cr/
What is the recommended way to zerofill a value in JavaScript? I imagine I could build a custom function to pad zeros on to a typecasted value, but I'm wondering if there is a more direct way to do this?
Note: By "zerofilled" I mean it in the database sense of the word (where a 6-digit zerofilled representation of the number 5 would be "000005").
I can't believe all the complex answers on here... Just use this:
var zerofilled = ('0000'+n).slice(-4);
let n = 1
var zerofilled = ('0000'+n).slice(-4);
console.log(zerofilled)
Simple way. You could add string multiplication for the pad and turn it into a function.
var pad = "000000";
var n = '5';
var result = (pad+n).slice(-pad.length);
As a function,
function paddy(num, padlen, padchar) {
var pad_char = typeof padchar !== 'undefined' ? padchar : '0';
var pad = new Array(1 + padlen).join(pad_char);
return (pad + num).slice(-pad.length);
}
var fu = paddy(14, 5); // 00014
var bar = paddy(2, 4, '#'); // ###2
Since ECMAScript 2017 we have padStart:
const padded = (.1 + "").padStart(6, "0");
console.log(`-${padded}`);
Before ECMAScript 2017
With toLocaleString:
var n=-0.1;
var res = n.toLocaleString('en', {minimumIntegerDigits:4,minimumFractionDigits:2,useGrouping:false});
console.log(res);
I actually had to come up with something like this recently.
I figured there had to be a way to do it without using loops.
This is what I came up with.
function zeroPad(num, numZeros) {
var n = Math.abs(num);
var zeros = Math.max(0, numZeros - Math.floor(n).toString().length );
var zeroString = Math.pow(10,zeros).toString().substr(1);
if( num < 0 ) {
zeroString = '-' + zeroString;
}
return zeroString+n;
}
Then just use it providing a number to zero pad:
> zeroPad(50,4);
"0050"
If the number is larger than the padding, the number will expand beyond the padding:
> zeroPad(51234, 3);
"51234"
Decimals are fine too!
> zeroPad(51.1234, 4);
"0051.1234"
If you don't mind polluting the global namespace you can add it to Number directly:
Number.prototype.leftZeroPad = function(numZeros) {
var n = Math.abs(this);
var zeros = Math.max(0, numZeros - Math.floor(n).toString().length );
var zeroString = Math.pow(10,zeros).toString().substr(1);
if( this < 0 ) {
zeroString = '-' + zeroString;
}
return zeroString+n;
}
And if you'd rather have decimals take up space in the padding:
Number.prototype.leftZeroPad = function(numZeros) {
var n = Math.abs(this);
var zeros = Math.max(0, numZeros - n.toString().length );
var zeroString = Math.pow(10,zeros).toString().substr(1);
if( this < 0 ) {
zeroString = '-' + zeroString;
}
return zeroString+n;
}
Cheers!
XDR came up with a logarithmic variation that seems to perform better.
WARNING: This function fails if num equals zero (e.g. zeropad(0, 2))
function zeroPad (num, numZeros) {
var an = Math.abs (num);
var digitCount = 1 + Math.floor (Math.log (an) / Math.LN10);
if (digitCount >= numZeros) {
return num;
}
var zeroString = Math.pow (10, numZeros - digitCount).toString ().substr (1);
return num < 0 ? '-' + zeroString + an : zeroString + an;
}
Speaking of performance, tomsmeding compared the top 3 answers (4 with the log variation). Guess which one majorly outperformed the other two? :)
Modern browsers now support padStart, you can simply now do:
string.padStart(maxLength, "0");
Example:
string = "14";
maxLength = 5; // maxLength is the max string length, not max # of fills
res = string.padStart(maxLength, "0");
console.log(res); // prints "00014"
number = 14;
maxLength = 5; // maxLength is the max string length, not max # of fills
res = number.toString().padStart(maxLength, "0");
console.log(res); // prints "00014"
Here's what I used to pad a number up to 7 characters.
("0000000" + number).slice(-7)
This approach will probably suffice for most people.
Edit: If you want to make it more generic you can do this:
("0".repeat(padding) + number).slice(-padding)
Edit 2: Note that since ES2017 you can use String.prototype.padStart:
number.toString().padStart(padding, "0")
Unfortunately, there are a lot of needless complicated suggestions for this problem, typically involving writing your own function to do math or string manipulation or calling a third-party utility. However, there is a standard way of doing this in the base JavaScript library with just one line of code. It might be worth wrapping this one line of code in a function to avoid having to specify parameters that you never want to change like the local name or style.
var amount = 5;
var text = amount.toLocaleString('en-US',
{
style: 'decimal',
minimumIntegerDigits: 3,
useGrouping: false
});
This will produce the value of "005" for text. You can also use the toLocaleString function of Number to pad zeros to the right side of the decimal point.
var amount = 5;
var text = amount.toLocaleString('en-US',
{
style: 'decimal',
minimumFractionDigits: 2,
useGrouping: false
});
This will produce the value of "5.00" for text. Change useGrouping to true to use comma separators for thousands.
Note that using toLocaleString() with locales and options arguments is standardized separately in ECMA-402, not in ECMAScript. As of today, some browsers only implement basic support, i.e. toLocaleString() may ignore any arguments.
Complete Example
If the fill number is known in advance not to exceed a certain value, there's another way to do this with no loops:
var fillZeroes = "00000000000000000000"; // max number of zero fill ever asked for in global
function zeroFill(number, width) {
// make sure it's a string
var input = number + "";
var prefix = "";
if (input.charAt(0) === '-') {
prefix = "-";
input = input.slice(1);
--width;
}
var fillAmt = Math.max(width - input.length, 0);
return prefix + fillZeroes.slice(0, fillAmt) + input;
}
Test cases here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/N87mZ/
The quick and dirty way:
y = (new Array(count + 1 - x.toString().length)).join('0') + x;
For x = 5 and count = 6 you'll have y = "000005"
Here's a quick function I came up with to do the job. If anyone has a simpler approach, feel free to share!
function zerofill(number, length) {
// Setup
var result = number.toString();
var pad = length - result.length;
while(pad > 0) {
result = '0' + result;
pad--;
}
return result;
}
ECMAScript 2017:
use padStart or padEnd
'abc'.padStart(10); // " abc"
'abc'.padStart(10, "foo"); // "foofoofabc"
'abc'.padStart(6,"123465"); // "123abc"
More info:
https://github.com/tc39/proposal-string-pad-start-end
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/padStart
I often use this construct for doing ad-hoc padding of some value n, known to be a positive, decimal:
(offset + n + '').substr(1);
Where offset is 10^^digits.
E.g., padding to 5 digits, where n = 123:
(1e5 + 123 + '').substr(1); // => 00123
The hexadecimal version of this is slightly more verbose:
(0x100000 + 0x123).toString(16).substr(1); // => 00123
Note 1: I like #profitehlolz's solution as well, which is the string version of this, using slice()'s nifty negative-index feature.
I really don't know why, but no one did it in the most obvious way. Here it's my implementation.
Function:
/** Pad a number with 0 on the left */
function zeroPad(number, digits) {
var num = number+"";
while(num.length < digits){
num='0'+num;
}
return num;
}
Prototype:
Number.prototype.zeroPad=function(digits){
var num=this+"";
while(num.length < digits){
num='0'+num;
}
return(num);
};
Very straightforward, I can't see any way how this can be any simpler. For some reason I've seem many times here on SO, people just try to avoid 'for' and 'while' loops at any cost. Using regex will probably cost way more cycles for such a trivial 8 digit padding.
In all modern browsers you can use
numberStr.padStart(numberLength, "0");
function zeroFill(num, numLength) {
var numberStr = num.toString();
return numberStr.padStart(numLength, "0");
}
var numbers = [0, 1, 12, 123, 1234, 12345];
numbers.forEach(
function(num) {
var numString = num.toString();
var paddedNum = zeroFill(numString, 5);
console.log(paddedNum);
}
);
Here is the MDN reference https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/padStart
I use this snippet to get a five-digits representation:
(value+100000).toString().slice(-5) // "00123" with value=123
The power of Math!
x = integer to pad
y = number of zeroes to pad
function zeroPad(x, y)
{
y = Math.max(y-1,0);
var n = (x / Math.pow(10,y)).toFixed(y);
return n.replace('.','');
}
This is the ES6 solution.
function pad(num, len) {
return '0'.repeat(len - num.toString().length) + num;
}
alert(pad(1234,6));
Not that this question needs more answers, but I thought I would add the simple lodash version of this.
_.padLeft(number, 6, '0')
I didn't see anyone point out the fact that when you use String.prototype.substr() with a negative number it counts from the right.
A one liner solution to the OP's question, a 6-digit zerofilled representation of the number 5, is:
console.log(("00000000" + 5).substr(-6));
Generalizing we'll get:
function pad(num, len) { return ("00000000" + num).substr(-len) };
console.log(pad(5, 6));
console.log(pad(45, 6));
console.log(pad(345, 6));
console.log(pad(2345, 6));
console.log(pad(12345, 6));
Don't reinvent the wheel; use underscore string:
jsFiddle
var numToPad = '5';
alert(_.str.pad(numToPad, 6, '0')); // Yields: '000005'
After a, long, long time of testing 15 different functions/methods found in this questions answers, I now know which is the best (the most versatile and quickest).
I took 15 functions/methods from the answers to this question and made a script to measure the time taken to execute 100 pads. Each pad would pad the number 9 with 2000 zeros. This may seem excessive, and it is, but it gives you a good idea about the scaling of the functions.
The code I used can be found here:
https://gist.github.com/NextToNothing/6325915
Feel free to modify and test the code yourself.
In order to get the most versatile method, you have to use a loop. This is because with very large numbers others are likely to fail, whereas, this will succeed.
So, which loop to use? Well, that would be a while loop. A for loop is still fast, but a while loop is just slightly quicker(a couple of ms) - and cleaner.
Answers like those by Wilco, Aleksandar Toplek or Vitim.us will do the job perfectly.
Personally, I tried a different approach. I tried to use a recursive function to pad the string/number. It worked out better than methods joining an array but, still, didn't work as quick as a for loop.
My function is:
function pad(str, max, padder) {
padder = typeof padder === "undefined" ? "0" : padder;
return str.toString().length < max ? pad(padder.toString() + str, max, padder) : str;
}
You can use my function with, or without, setting the padding variable. So like this:
pad(1, 3); // Returns '001'
// - Or -
pad(1, 3, "x"); // Returns 'xx1'
Personally, after my tests, I would use a method with a while loop, like Aleksandar Toplek or Vitim.us. However, I would modify it slightly so that you are able to set the padding string.
So, I would use this code:
function padLeft(str, len, pad) {
pad = typeof pad === "undefined" ? "0" : pad + "";
str = str + "";
while(str.length < len) {
str = pad + str;
}
return str;
}
// Usage
padLeft(1, 3); // Returns '001'
// - Or -
padLeft(1, 3, "x"); // Returns 'xx1'
You could also use it as a prototype function, by using this code:
Number.prototype.padLeft = function(len, pad) {
pad = typeof pad === "undefined" ? "0" : pad + "";
var str = this + "";
while(str.length < len) {
str = pad + str;
}
return str;
}
// Usage
var num = 1;
num.padLeft(3); // Returns '001'
// - Or -
num.padLeft(3, "x"); // Returns 'xx1'
First parameter is any real number, second parameter is a positive integer specifying the minimum number of digits to the left of the decimal point and third parameter is an optional positive integer specifying the number if digits to the right of the decimal point.
function zPad(n, l, r){
return(a=String(n).match(/(^-?)(\d*)\.?(\d*)/))?a[1]+(Array(l).join(0)+a[2]).slice(-Math.max(l,a[2].length))+('undefined'!==typeof r?(0<r?'.':'')+(a[3]+Array(r+1).join(0)).slice(0,r):a[3]?'.'+a[3]:''):0
}
so
zPad(6, 2) === '06'
zPad(-6, 2) === '-06'
zPad(600.2, 2) === '600.2'
zPad(-600, 2) === '-600'
zPad(6.2, 3) === '006.2'
zPad(-6.2, 3) === '-006.2'
zPad(6.2, 3, 0) === '006'
zPad(6, 2, 3) === '06.000'
zPad(600.2, 2, 3) === '600.200'
zPad(-600.1499, 2, 3) === '-600.149'
The latest way to do this is much simpler:
var number = 2
number.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumIntegerDigits:2})
output: "02"
Just another solution, but I think it's more legible.
function zeroFill(text, size)
{
while (text.length < size){
text = "0" + text;
}
return text;
}
This one is less native, but may be the fastest...
zeroPad = function (num, count) {
var pad = (num + '').length - count;
while(--pad > -1) {
num = '0' + num;
}
return num;
};
My solution
Number.prototype.PadLeft = function (length, digit) {
var str = '' + this;
while (str.length < length) {
str = (digit || '0') + str;
}
return str;
};
Usage
var a = 567.25;
a.PadLeft(10); // 0000567.25
var b = 567.25;
b.PadLeft(20, '2'); // 22222222222222567.25
With ES6+ JavaScript:
You can "zerofill a number" with something like the following function:
/**
* #param number The number
* #param minLength Minimal length for your string with leading zeroes
* #return Your formatted string
*/
function zerofill(nb, minLength) {
// Convert your number to string.
let nb2Str = nb.toString()
// Guess the number of zeroes you will have to write.
let nbZeroes = Math.max(0, minLength - nb2Str.length)
// Compute your result.
return `${ '0'.repeat(nbZeroes) }${ nb2Str }`
}
console.log(zerofill(5, 6)) // Displays "000005"
With ES2017+:
/**
* #param number The number
* #param minLength Minimal length for your string with leading zeroes
* #return Your formatted string
*/
const zerofill = (nb, minLength) => nb.toString().padStart(minLength, '0')
console.log(zerofill(5, 6)) // Displays "000005"
Use recursion:
function padZero(s, n) {
s = s.toString(); // In case someone passes a number
return s.length >= n ? s : padZero('0' + s, n);
}
Some monkeypatching also works
String.prototype.padLeft = function (n, c) {
if (isNaN(n))
return null;
c = c || "0";
return (new Array(n).join(c).substring(0, this.length-n)) + this;
};
var paddedValue = "123".padLeft(6); // returns "000123"
var otherPadded = "TEXT".padLeft(8, " "); // returns " TEXT"
function pad(toPad, padChar, length){
return (String(toPad).length < length)
? new Array(length - String(toPad).length + 1).join(padChar) + String(toPad)
: toPad;
}
pad(5, 0, 6) = 000005
pad('10', 0, 2) = 10 // don't pad if not necessary
pad('S', 'O', 2) = SO
...etc.
Cheers