This is already in the FAQ for two days now, but Nick told me to post it here:

As described in the help, padr('abc',20) will give a string with 17 trailing blanks - but try padc(12, 13), or padl(date(), 20) - you will get a string containing the string representation of number 12 or today's date, padded with blanks (or any other string you choose) on the side of your choice.

Try padc(datetime(), 80, '-*- ') and see what you get.