Helping the community via forums often leads to some very interesting moments. Recently, I came across quite a common question – as part of a data migration, someone wanted to pad integers with zeroes. There are various variations to this question, namely:

How do I pad zeroes to  convert an integer to a fixed length string?

How do I pad zeroes before an integer?

How to I pad blank spaces before an integer?

All of these questions have quite a simple solution, which I am going to present before you today.

The script demonstrates the process of padding the required values to a set of integers in a test table. The script:

1. Converts the Integer to a string
2. Appends this string representation of the integer to the padding string
3. Finally, returns the required number of characters from the right of the string

For the purposes of this demo, I have shown the result with two padding characters – a zero (0) and an asterisk (*).

Have you ever faced such a requirement as part of a data migration or an integration? Do you use a similar approach? Do share your thoughts and suggestions in the space below.

--Pad zeroes in string representation of a number
USE tempdb;
GO
--Safety Check
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.TestTable','U') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
   DROP TABLE dbo.TestTable;
END
GO

--Create the test tables
CREATE TABLE dbo.TestTable
            (RecordId    INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1),
             RecordValue INT     NULL
            );
GO

--Populate some test data
INSERT INTO dbo.TestTable (RecordValue)
VALUES (123),
       (1023),
       (NULL);
GO

/**************** PADDING CHARACTER: ZERO (0) ****************************/

--Change the padding character and the number of strings as required
DECLARE @requiredStringLength INT = 10;
DECLARE @paddingCharacter CHAR(1) = '0'

--The script:
--1. Converts the Integer to a string
--2. Appends this string representation of the integer to the padding string
--3. Finally, returns the required number of characters from the right of the string
SELECT RecordId,
       RecordValue AS OriginalValue,
       RIGHT( (REPLICATE( @paddingCharacter, @requiredStringLength )
              + CAST(RecordValue AS VARCHAR(20))
              ),
              @requiredStringLength
            ) AS PaddedValue
FROM dbo.TestTable AS tt;
GO

/* RESULTS
RecordId    OriginalValue PaddedValue
----------- ------------- ------------
1           123           0000000123
2           1023          0000001023
3           NULL          NULL

*/

/**************** PADDING CHARACTER: ASTERISK (*) ****************************/

--Change the padding character and the number of strings as required
DECLARE @requiredStringLength INT = 10;
DECLARE @paddingCharacter CHAR(1) = '*'

--The script:
--1. Converts the Integer to a string
--2. Appends this string representation of the integer to the padding string
--3. Finally, returns the required number of characters from the right of the string
SELECT RecordId,
       RecordValue AS OriginalValue,
       RIGHT( (REPLICATE( @paddingCharacter, @requiredStringLength )
               + CAST(RecordValue AS VARCHAR(20))
              ),
              @requiredStringLength
            ) AS PaddedValue
FROM dbo.TestTable AS tt;
GO

/* RESULTS
RecordId    OriginalValue PaddedValue
----------- ------------- ------------
1           123           *******123
2           1023          ******1023
3           NULL          NULL
*/

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.