Adding extra zeros in front of a number using jQuery?

Question

I have file that are uploaded which are formatted like so

MR 1

MR 2

MR 100

MR 200

MR 300

Answer 1

Note: see Update 2 if you are using latest ECMAScript...

---

Here a solution I liked for its simplicity from an answer to a similar question:

var n = 123

String('00000' + n).slice(-5); // returns 00123
('00000' + n).slice(-5);       // returns 00123

---

UPDATE

As @RWC suggested you can wrap this of course nicely in a generic function like this:

function leftPad(value, length) { 
    return ('0'.repeat(length) + value).slice(-length); 
}

leftPad(123, 5); // returns 00123

And for those who don't like the slice:

function leftPad(value, length) {
    value = String(value);
    length = length - value.length;
    return ('0'.repeat(length) + value)
}

But if performance matters I recommend reading through the linked answer before choosing one of the solutions suggested.

UPDATE 2

In ES6 the String class now comes with a inbuilt padStart method which adds leading characters to a string. Check MDN here for reference on String.prototype.padStart(). And there is also a padEnd method for ending characters.

So with ES6 it became as simple as:

var n = 123;
n.padStart(5, '0'); // returns 00123