How can I pad a value with leading zeros?

Question

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").

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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/

Answer 3

This is the ES6 solution.

function pad(num, len) {
  return '0'.repeat(len - num.toString().length) + num;
}
alert(pad(1234,6));

Answer 4

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"

Answer 5

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'

Answer 6

Just an another solution, but I think it's more legible.

function zeroFill(text, size)
{
  while (text.length < size){
  	text = "0" + text;
  }
  
  return text;
}