Question

I have a project where I have to generate random numbers from 00000 till 99999.
The randomizing isn’t where I get stuck, but the fact that it always needs 5 characters is. So when it generates the number 14, I want it as 00014.

What is the best way to achieve this?

Answer 1

sprintf() can do that:

echo sprintf('%05d', 0);

Or use str_pad() – but that’s a little bit longer in code:

echo str_pad(0, 5, 0, STR_PAD_LEFT);