Is there any function in Ksh/Sh to make a string length to fixed length, for example, 5 characters length, and add space from left to the strings if it's length not up to 5? Thanks,

The function you are looking for is "typeset" Option Operation -Ln Left-justify. Remove leading blanks; if n is given, fill with blanks or truncate on right to length n. -Rn Right-justify. Remove trailing blanks; if n is given, fill with blanks or truncate on left to length n. -Zn Same as above, except add leading 0's instead of blanks if needed. -l Convert letters to lowercase. -u Convert letters to uppercase. Here are a few simple examples. Assume that the variable alpha is assigned the letters of the alphabet, in alternating case, surrounded by three blanks on each side: alpha=" aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ " Examples of typeset String Formatting Options Statement Value of v typeset -L v=$alpha "aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ " typeset -L10 v=$alpha "aBcDeFgHiJ" typeset -R v=$alpha " aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ" typeset -R16 v=$alpha "kLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ" typeset -l v=$alpha " abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" typeset -uR5 v=$alpha "VWXYZ" typeset -Z8 v="123.50" "00123.50"

thank you so much, it really helps!