MySQL RPAD() Function

The MySQL RPAD() function returns a string that is right-padded with a specified string to a certain length. If the string is longer than length, this function will remove characters from the string to shorten it to the length characters.

Syntax

RPAD(string, length, pad_string)

Parameters

Return Value

Returns a string that is right-padded with a specified string to a certain length.

Example 1:

The example below shows the usage of RPAD() function.

mysql> SELECT RPAD('alphacodingskills', 21, ' ');
Result: 'alphacodingskills    '

mysql> SELECT RPAD('alphacodingskills', 21, '*');
Result: 'alphacodingskills****'

mysql> SELECT RPAD('alphacodingskills', 21, 'XYZ');
Result: 'alphacodingskillsXYZX'

mysql> SELECT RPAD('', 8, 'XYZ');
Result: 'XYZXYZXY'

mysql> SELECT RPAD('abc', 8, 'XYZ');
Result: 'abcXYZXY'

mysql> SELECT RPAD('alphacodingskills', 11, 'XYZ');
Result: 'alphacoding'

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Employee with the following records:

The below mentioned query is used to right-pad the records of EmpID column of the Employee table:

UPDATE Employee SET EmpID = RPAD(EmpID, 4, 'FIN');

-- see the result
SELECT * FROM Employee;

This will produce the following result: