Pad a string with leading zeros so it's 3 characters long in SQL Server 2008

Question

I have a string that is up to 3 characters long when it\'s first created in SQL Server 2008 R2.

I would like to pad it with leading zeros, so if its original value w

Answer 1

For a more dynamic approach try this.

declare @val varchar(5)
declare @maxSpaces int
set @maxSpaces = 3
set @val = '3'
select concat(REPLICATE('0',@maxSpaces-len(@val)),@val)