很多人都有一些非常有趣的技巧，但我喜欢保持简单，所以我用这个:

public static String padRight(String s, int n, char padding){
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(s.length() + n);
    builder.append(s);
    for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
        builder.append(padding);
    }
    return builder.toString();
}

public static String padLeft(String s, int n,  char padding) {
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(s.length() + n);
    for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
        builder.append(Character.toString(padding));
    }
    return builder.append(s).toString();
}

public static String pad(String s, int n, char padding){
    StringBuilder pad = new StringBuilder(s.length() + n * 2);
    StringBuilder value = new StringBuilder(n);
    for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
        pad.append(padding);
    }
    return value.append(pad).append(s).append(pad).toString();
}

概括一下Eko的答案(Java 11+):

public class StringUtils {
    public static String padLeft(String s, char fill, int padSize) {
        if (padSize < 0) {
            var err = "padSize must be >= 0 (was " + padSize + ")";
            throw new java.lang.IllegalArgumentException(err);
        }

        int repeats = Math.max(0, padSize - s.length());
        return Character.toString(fill).repeat(repeats) + s;
    }

    public static String padRight(String s, char fill, int padSize) {
        if (padSize < 0) {
            var err = "padSize must be >= 0 (was " + padSize + ")";
            throw new java.lang.IllegalArgumentException(err);
        }

        int repeats = Math.max(0, padSize - s.length());
        return s + Character.toString(fill).repeat(repeats);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(padLeft("", 'x', 5)); // => xxxxx
        System.out.println(padLeft("1", 'x', 5)); // => xxxx1
        System.out.println(padLeft("12", 'x', 5)); // => xxx12
        System.out.println(padLeft("123", 'x', 5)); // => xx123
        System.out.println(padLeft("1234", 'x', 5)); // => x1234
        System.out.println(padLeft("12345", 'x', 5)); // => 12345
        System.out.println(padLeft("123456", 'x', 5)); // => 123456

        System.out.println(padRight("", 'x', 5)); // => xxxxx
        System.out.println(padRight("1", 'x', 5)); // => 1xxxx
        System.out.println(padRight("12", 'x', 5)); // => 12xxx
        System.out.println(padRight("123", 'x', 5)); // => 123xx
        System.out.println(padRight("1234", 'x', 5)); // => 1234x
        System.out.println(padRight("12345", 'x', 5)); // => 12345
        System.out.println(padRight("123456", 'x', 5)); // => 123456

        System.out.println(padRight("1", 'x', -1)); // => throws
    }
}

不管怎样，我一直在寻找一些可以填充的东西，然后我决定自己编写代码。它非常简洁，你可以很容易地从中推导出padLeft和padRight

    /**
     * Pads around a string, both left and right using pad as the template, aligning to the right or left as indicated.
     * @param a the string to pad on both left and right
     * @param pad the template to pad with, it can be of any size
     * @param width the fixed width to output
     * @param alignRight if true, when the input string is of odd length, adds an extra pad char to the left, so values are right aligned
     *                   otherwise add an extra pad char to the right. When the input is of even length no extra chars will be inserted
     * @return the input param a padded around.
     */
    public static String padAround(String a, String pad, int width, boolean alignRight) {
        if (pad.length() == 0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Pad cannot be an empty string!");
        int delta = width - a.length();
        if (delta < 1)
            return a;
        int half = delta / 2;
        int remainder = delta % 2;
        String padding = pad.repeat(((half+remainder)/pad.length()+1)); // repeating the padding to occupy all possible space
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(width);
//        sb.append( padding.substring(0,half + (alignRight ? 0 : remainder)));
        sb.append(padding, 0, half + (alignRight ? 0 : remainder));
        sb.append(a);
//        sb.append( padding.substring(0,half + (alignRight ? remainder : 0)));
        sb.append(padding, 0, half + (alignRight ? remainder : 0));

        return sb.toString();
    }

虽然它应该是相当快的，它可能会受益于使用一些韵母在这里和那里。

从Java 11开始，string. repeat(int)可以用来左右填充给定的字符串。

System.out.println("*".repeat(5)+"apple");
System.out.println("apple"+"*".repeat(5));

输出:

*****apple
apple*****

public static String padLeft(String in, int size, char padChar) {                
    if (in.length() <= size) {
        char[] temp = new char[size];
        /* Llenado Array con el padChar*/
        for(int i =0;i<size;i++){
            temp[i]= padChar;
        }
        int posIniTemp = size-in.length();
        for(int i=0;i<in.length();i++){
            temp[posIniTemp]=in.charAt(i);
            posIniTemp++;
        }            
        return new String(temp);
    }
    return "";
}

Apache StringUtils有几个方法:leftPad, rightPad, center和repeat。

但是请注意，正如其他人在这个回答中提到和演示的那样，JDK中的String.format()和Formatter类是更好的选择。使用它们而不是公共代码。