MySQL | LPAD method
Start your free 7-days trial now!
MySQL's LPAD(~) method returns the string argument, left-padded with the pad string up to a certain length.
Parameters
1. str | string
The string that is to be left-padded.
2. len | number
The length of the return string.
If the original str is longer than the provided len, the original str will be truncated.
3. padstr | string
The string to perform padding with.
Return value
Case | Return Value |
|---|---|
| Left-padded string of length |
| Original string |
|
|
Examples
Consider the following table about some students:
student_id | fname | lname | day_enrolled | age | username |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sky | Towner | 2015-12-03 | 17 | stowner1 |
2 | Ben | Davis | 2016-04-20 | 19 | bdavis2 |
3 | Travis | Apple | 2018-08-14 | 18 | tapple3 |
4 | Arthur | David | 2016-04-01 | 16 | adavid4 |
5 | Benjamin | Town | 2014-01-01 | 17 | btown5 |
The above sample table can be created using the code here.
Basic usage
To left-pad student first names to length 6 characters with '*' as the padding string:
SELECT fname, LPAD(fname, 6, '*')FROM students;
+----------+-------------------+| fname | LPAD(fname,6,'*') |+----------+-------------------+| Sky | ***Sky || Ben | ***Ben || Travis | Travis || Arthur | Arthur || Benjamin | Benjam |+----------+-------------------+
Note that:
'Sky'and'Ben'were left-padded to length 6 characters with'*''Travis'and'Arthur'were returned untouched as they were 6 characters exactly.'Benjamin'was truncated to'Benjam'as it was longer than 6 characters.
Truncation will keep characters starting from the left:
SELECT LPAD('hello', 1, '??');
+------------------------+| LPAD('hello', 1, '??') |+------------------------+| h |+------------------------+
All characters to the right of the 1st character were truncated.
