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 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 are formatted with a monospaced font (Courier New) to clearly show all strings are the same length.
Related formulas
Conditional message with REPT function
Related functions
REPT Function
The Excel REPT function repeats characters a given number of times. For example, =REPT("x",5) returns "xxxxx".
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.
