How to pad zeros to a String in Python

This article shows how to pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left such that the string has a specific length.

This article shows how to pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left such that the string has a specific length.

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It also shows how numbers can be converted to a formatted String with leading zeros.

Use str.zfill(width)¶

zfill is the best method to pad zeros from the left side as it can also handle a leading '+' or '-' sign.

It returns a copy of the string left filled with '0' digits to make a string of length width. A leading sign prefix ('+'/'-') is handled by inserting the padding after the sign character rather than before. The original string is returned if width is less than or equal to len(s).

>>> "42".zfill(5)
'00042'
>>> "-42".zfill(5)
'-0042'

Use str.rjust(width[, fillbyte])¶

If you want to insert an arbitrary character on the left side, use rjust. It returns a copy of the object right justified in a sequence of length width. The default filling character is a space. However, this does not handle a sign prefix.

>>> "42".rjust(5)
'   42'
>>> "42".rjust(5, "0")
'00042'
>>> "-42".rjust(5, "0")
'00-42'

Numbers can be padded with string formatting¶

Converted a number to a formatted string with leading zeros by using string formatting:

n = 42
print(f'{n:05d}')
print('%05d' % n)
print('{0:05d}'.format(n))

# --> all will output the same:
# '00042'
# '00042'
# '00042'

See more in the String formatting documentation