As you discovered, there is no PadL in VB. I have created my own PadL for you (and all other listeners ... like Jean-René ;) )

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    MsgBox PadL("John", "X", 6)
End Sub

Private Function PadL(ByVal pstrString As String, _
                      ByVal pstrPadChar As String, _
                      ByVal pintLen As Integer) As String
    PadL = String$(pintLen - Len(pstrString), pstrPadChar) & pstrString
End Function

>a function on visual foxpro PADL does this:
>strName = "John"
>PADL(strName,6,"XX") -- returns "XXJohn"
>-----------------------------------------
>how do i accomplish this with visual basic?
>-tia