Excel formula: Pad text to equal length

Generic formula

=A1&REPT("*",count-LEN(A1))

Summary

To pad text to an equal length using another character, you can use a formula based on the REPT and LEN functions. In the example shown, a formula is used to append a variable number of asterisks (*) to values in column B so that the final result is always 12 characters in length. The formula in C5 is:

=B5&REPT("*",12-LEN(B5))

Explanation

This formula concatenates the original value in column B to a string of asterisks (*) assembled with the REPT function so that the final result is always 12 characters:

REPT("*",12-LEN(B5))

Inside the REPT function, the text to repeat is provided as a single asterisk ("*"). The number of asterisks needed for each value is determined with with the LEN function in this bit of code here:

12-LEN(B5)

We start with 12, then subtract the length of the text in column B. In cell B5, "Sebastian" is 9 characters, so the result is 3. The formula is evaluated like this:

="Sebastian"&REPT("*",12-LEN(B5))
="Sebastian"&REPT("*",12-9)
="Sebastian"&REPT("*",3)
="Sebastian"&"***"
="Sebastian***"

The results in column C is formatted with a monospaced font (Courier New) to clearly show all strings are the same length.

Author

Dave Bruns

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Related functions

Excel REPT Function

The Excel REPT function repeats characters a given number of times. For example, =REPT("x",5) returns "xxxxx".

Excel LEN Function

The Excel LEN function returns the length of a given text string as the number of characters. LEN will also count characters in numbers, but number formatting is not included.

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