-- v9.x databases

-- padding the string on the both sides with pad char to total lenght of len chars
create function cpad(s varchar( 4000 ), len int, pad varchar( 1 ))
returns varchar( 4000 )
return 
  repeat(pad, case when len-length(s, codeunits16)> 0  then (len-length(s, codeunits16))/ 2  else  0  end)
||s
||repeat(pad, case when len-length(s, codeunits16)> 0  then int(ceil(dec(len-length(s, codeunits16))/ 2 )) else  0  end);

-- padding the string on the right with pad char to total lenght of len chars
create function rpad(s varchar( 4000 ), len int, pad varchar( 1 ))
returns varchar( 4000 )
return 
  s
||repeat(pad, case when len-length(s, codeunits16)> 0  then len-length(s, codeunits16) else  0  end);