Orable ... as in Oracle .. get it? Eh, eh? Oh yes, Oracle fans can find that and all sorts of other creative puns over at the IHOC. But I didn't pick Matt's submission just so I could plug the club ... or even so I could share the obligatory Oracle Consultant link. No, today's code actually represents an impressive combination of both the use and avoidance of the built-in string padding function, RPAD ... 

/* Prepare firstname */
IF v_first_nm IS NULL THEN
    v_first_nm := RPAD_SPACES ( 9 );
END IF;
IF LENGTH ( v_first_nm ) < 9 THEN
    v_first_nm := RPAD ( v_first_nm
                       , 9
                       , ' ' );
END IF;

/* Prepare lastname */
IF v_last_nm IS NULL THEN
    v_last_nm := RPAD_SPACES ( 15 );
END IF;
IF LENGTH ( v_last_nm ) < 15 THEN
    v_last_nm := RPAD ( v_last_nm
                      , 15
                      , ' ' );
END IF;

/* ED: Snip ... */

FUNCTION RPAD_SPACES ( SPACES NUMBER )
  RETURN CHAR
IS
    PADVAR VARCHAR2 ( 60 );
    PAD CHAR ( 1 ) := ' ';
    LOOPVAR NUMBER ( 2 );
BEGIN
    IF SPACES = 1
    THEN
        RETURN PAD;
    ELSIF SPACES = 2
    THEN
        RETURN PAD || PAD;
    ELSE
        FOR LOOPVAR IN 1 ..SPACES - 2
        LOOP
            PADVAR := PAD || RPAD ( PAD
                                  , LOOPVAR + 1
                                  , ' ' );
        END
        LOOP;
        RETURN PADVAR;
    END IF;
END;
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