T-SQL Question

Try this. I use something similar for counting the number of commas in a string.

--drop table ast
create table ast (field1 varchar(128))

insert  into  ast
	select '000'
	union
	select '*111'
	union
	select '*222*'
	union
	select '333***'
	union
	select '*4*4*4*'
	union
	select '5*5*5***'	
	union
	select '**66*6***'	
	

-- count the number of * before
select (LEN(field1) - LEN(REPLACE(field1, '*', '')))  as "*Count", field1 from ast order by 1

-- once you know how to count the number of *, the rest is easy
update ast set field1 = field1  + replicate ('*', 5 - (LEN(field1) - LEN(REPLACE(field1, '*', ''))))
	where (LEN(field1) - LEN(REPLACE(field1, '*', '')))  < 5
-- count the number of * after
select (LEN(field1) - LEN(REPLACE(field1, '*', '')))  as "*Count", field1 from ast order by 1