LPAD: Left-Padding a Character String

How to:

Reference:

LPAD uses a specified character and output length to return a character string padded on the left with that character.

Syntax: How to Pad a Character String on the Left

LPAD(string, out_length, pad_character)

where:

string

Fixed length alphanumeric

Is a string to pad on the left side.

out_length

Integer

Is the length of the output string after padding.

pad_character

Fixed length alphanumeric

Is a single character to use for padding.

LPAD left-pads the PRODUCT_CATEGORY column with @ symbols:

LPAD(PRODUCT_CATEGORY,25,'@')

For Stereo Systems, the output is @@@@@@@@@@@Stereo Systems.

To use the single quotation mark (') as the padding character, you must double it and enclose the two single quotation marks within single quotation marks (LPAD(COUNTRY, 20,''''). You can use an amper variable in quotation marks for this parameter, but you cannot use a field, virtual or real.
Input can be fixed or variable length alphanumeric.
Output, when optimized to SQL, will always be data type VARCHAR.
If the output is specified as shorter than the original input, the original data will be truncated, leaving only the padding characters. The output length can be specified as a positive integer or an unquoted &variable (indicating a numeric).

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