Special characters throwing off str_pad in php?

Question

I\'m writing a module that is supposed to be able to export transaction records in BankOne format.

Here is the specification of the format

Here is an example

Answer 1

function mb_str_pad($input, $pad_length, $pad_string = ' ', $pad_type = STR_PAD_RIGHT) {
    $diff = strlen($input) - mb_strlen($input,mb_detect_encoding($input));
    return str_pad($input, $pad_length + $diff, $pad_string, $pad_type);
}