MySQL LPAD() Function

The MySQL LPAD() function returns a string that is left-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

LPAD(string, length, pad_string)

Parameters

Return Value

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

Example 1:

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

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

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

mysql> SELECT LPAD('alphacodingskills', 21, 'XYZ');
Result: 'XYZXalphacodingskills'

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

mysql> SELECT LPAD('abc', 8, 'XYZ');
Result: 'XYZXYabc'

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

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Employee with the following records:

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

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

-- see the result
SELECT * FROM Employee;

This will produce the following result: