How to pad string with zeroes & right-justify in bash using sed

Pad any string using this sed command:

sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,3\}$/0&/;ta'

This pads every string to length 4, usage example:

$ echo x | sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,3\}$/0&/;ta'
000x

In case you want to pad to a different length, replace 3 in the script by (your desired length - 1).

You can also use a bash function like this:

# Zero pad to length 4, right-justified
function zero_pad4 { echo $1 | sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,3\}$/0&/;ta' ; }

Usage example:

$ zero_pad4 1x
001x

Original source, modified: The Unix School