Most efficient T-SQL way to pad a varchar on the left to a certain length?

by

This is simply an inefficient use of SQL, no matter how you do it.

perhaps something like 

right('XXXXXXXXXXXX'+ rtrim(@str), @n)

where X is your padding character and @n is the number of characters in the resulting string (assuming you need the padding because you are dealing with a fixed length).

But as I said you should really avoid doing this in your database.

More Related Contents:

  1. How do I perform an IF…THEN in an SQL SELECT?
  2. Inserting multiple rows in a single SQL query? [duplicate]
  3. Passing a varchar full of comma delimited values to a SQL Server IN function
  4. SQL update query using joins
  5. How can I list all foreign keys referencing a given table in SQL Server?
  6. In SQL, how can you “group by” in ranges?
  7. T-SQL: Deleting all duplicate rows but keeping one [duplicate]
  8. Split function equivalent in T-SQL?
  9. Removing leading zeroes from a field in a SQL statement
  10. converting Epoch timestamp to sql server(human readable format)
  11. Getting result of dynamic SQL into a variable for sql-server
  12. How to get difference between two rows for a column field?
  13. How do I split a delimited string so I can access individual items?
  14. What’s the best way to select the minimum value from several columns?
  15. T-SQL split string based on delimiter
  16. Counting DISTINCT over multiple columns
  17. SQL Server SELECT into existing table
  18. Is there a performance difference between CTE , Sub-Query, Temporary Table or Table Variable?
  19. Why use Select Top 100 Percent?
  20. How to check if a stored procedure exists before creating it
  21. Correct use of transactions in SQL Server
  22. How do I prevent a database trigger from recursing?
  23. What is the Null Character literal in TSQL?
  24. Aggregate function in an SQL update query?
  25. Executing SQL Server Agent Job from a stored procedure and returning job result
  26. how does SELECT TOP works when no order by is specified?
  27. SQL – How do I get only the numbers after the decimal?
  28. How to retrieve records for last 30 minutes in MS SQL?
  29. Group consecutive rows of same value using time spans
  30. Why do SQL Server Scalar-valued functions get slower?

Leave a Comment