Pad the string on the left with spaces or the named character. If the string is already padded, as happens with a CHARACTER datatype, the string must first be trimmed using the TRIM function.

This function returns a STRING datatype.

$LPAD( character_expression, num_characters [, pad_character] )

Required. Any expression that returns a character-class datatype. Examples of expressions are columns, concatenations of columns, literal strings and functions that return a character datatype.

Required. The number of characters to be returned from the function, with the left-most characters padded with spaces or the named character.

Optional. The character to be used to pad the string. If this parameter is omitted, then a space is used as the pad character.

In this example, the name must first be trimmed and since it is already padded with spaces.

> SELECT $lpad(trim(name), 40, '.') nme FROM individuals;

NME
----------------------------------------
..........................MS. MARY LEWIS
...................MRS. ALICE R TOLLIVER
...................MR. SIDNEY K TOLLIVER
.................MRS. JENNIFER J HOPKINS
.....................MR. CHARLIE HOPKINS
.......................MS. KIMBERLY BLUE
.........................KATHLEEN TUCKER

See also: