Instead of needing to import leftpad you have the missing standard js lib

It isn't missing. Javascript was created to serve a specific purpose, which didn't include left-padding text in a terminal. Most language I'm aware of wouldn't have that in their standard lib.

If you want Javascript to act as a drop-in replacement for C++ or Java or some other general programming language (which Javascript was never intended to be) don't act as if needing to write libraries to cover that missing functionality is a problem with the language. You're using the wrong tool for the wrong job.

> Most language I'm aware of wouldn't have that in their standard lib.

Python has str.ljust [1] (and str.rjust [2]):

> Return the string left justified in a string of length width. Padding is done using the specified fillchar (default is an ASCII space). The original string is returned if width is less than or equal to len(s).

[1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.ljust

[2] https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.rjust

C has it in their standard library, basically forever. See the list of specifiers to printf. C! If it fits into the C standard library, it's not bloating the Javascript standard library.

Ruby and PHP both have string padding functions. So does Swift. (edit: and as Macha points out, C and any language with printf functionality, like Perl.) It’s not that uncommon.

(I was going to joke that TRS-80 BASIC had it circa 1979, but it turns out that it would be a two-step operation: Python’s str.ljust(40) would become LEFT$(STRING$(40, " "),40) .)