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.

Example: Left-Padding a String

In the following request against the WF_RETAIL data source, LPAD left-pads the PRODUCT_CATEGORY column with @ symbols: 

DEFINE FILE WF_RETAIL
LPAD1/A25 = LPAD(PRODUCT_CATEGORY,25,'@');
DIG1/A4 = DIGITS(ID_PRODUCT,4);
END
TABLE FILE WF_RETAIL
SUM DIG1 LPAD1
BY PRODUCT_CATEGORY
ON TABLE SET PAGE NOPAGE
ON TABLE SET STYLE *
TYPE=DATA,FONT=COURIER,SIZE=11,COLOR=BLUE,$
END

The output is:

Reference: Usage Notes for LPAD

  • 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).