Final answer:
In programming, the right-padding function fills the space to the right of a string with a specific character. This can be achieved with str.ljust() in Python or RPAD in SQL and is used to ensure strings meet a certain length.
Step-by-step explanation:
The function that fills the area to the right of a character string with a specific character is commonly called padding or right-padding. In many programming languages, this is accomplished with a built-in function. For example, in Python, the method is str.ljust(), which will justify the string to the left and fill up the remainder of a specified width with a provided character. Similarly, in SQL, the function RPAD can be used to right-pad a string with a specific character until it reaches a certain length.
The str_pad function fills the area to the right of a character string with a specific character. It is commonly used to format strings and adjust their length.
Here's an example:
string $paddedString = str_pad('Hello', 10, '*', STR_PAD_RIGHT);
In this example, the str_pad function will add asterisks to the right of the string 'Hello' until its length reaches 10 characters. The resulting value of $paddedString will be 'Hello*****'.