MATLAB: How to pad all numbers in array

Question

How can I pad a vector of number with zeros ? I am able to do it with a for loop but I was wondering if there is a neater way to do it ?

For example,

a = [1 2 3 4 5];
b = sprintf('%06d',a);

gives me '000001000002000003000004000005'

I would like it to be [000001 000002 …..];

Answer 1

 b = sprintf(' %06d',a{:});
              ^ add this space