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sqlsql-servert-sql

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

As compared to say:

REPLICATE(@padchar, @len - LEN(@str)) + @str
Solution

  • 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.