[AccessD] formatting strings and placing them in a larger string

I need to take some piece of data, format it correctly (yyyymmdd for dates,
$$$$.CCCC  for currency, XXXX.DD for other floats, etc.

I then need to place it in a specific length field, padded left with spaces.

I then need to insert that string inside of a larger string at a specific
location.

Someone posted a solution for placing a string inside a larger string but I
can't find the email.

I can build up a string of @ characters into the correct length using a
simple:

    While Len(strPad) < mintLen
        strPad = strPad & "@"
    Wend

But is there any way to just specify that I want a string of 40 @
characters?

JWC