What is the purpose of the padStart() method in string manipulation?
const text = 'Hello, World!';
const result = text.padStart(15, '*');
padStart() is used for left-padding strings: 1) Adds padding characters at the beginning of string, 2) Takes target length as first parameter, 3) Optional second parameter specifies padding character (defaults to space), 4) Useful for alignment and formatting, 5) Returns new string without modifying original, 6) Does nothing if string length exceeds target length, 7) Common in financial applications for number formatting, 8) Essential for creating uniform-width string outputs.