UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Good Morning,
Newbie here. Could someone help with shell scripting that will enable me to combine 2 fields into one eliminating the white space. The fields are fixed but the data of course varies.
For example:
First Name: "George " 20 positions"
Last Name: "Washington " 30 positions"

I need to create one field with First and Last Name eliminating the space after George into a fixed field length of 50.

Result:
Name: "George Washington "

Appreciate any help.
Thanks.

Code:

> 
> fname="George              "
> lname="Washington          "
> full=$(echo $fname $lname)
> echo $full
George Washington
> echo "$full" "*"
George Washington *
> fullt=$(printf "%-50s" "$full")
> echo "$fullt" "*"
George Washington                                  *
>

I used the "*" to help see spacing on the screen.
The printf commands was the key.
Also be careful of use of " " around variables; using means extra space characters are kept while not using and the shell will truncate extra space characters.

Joey,
Your instructions were very clear and worked perfectly. You've made my day as I've been working on trying to figure this out for awhile.
Have a Great Day!
Toni