Question

So the following code can left pad a string with spaces keeping a max length of max_len (spaces and string included).

max_len = 20; 

spacing_arg = ['% ', max_len,'s'];

padded_string = sprintf(spacing_arg, str);

Now how to do it efficiently with right padding?

Answer 1

Is this what you mean?

max_len = 20; 
spacing_arg = ['%-', num2str(max_len),'s'];
padded_string = sprintf(spacing_arg, str);