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

I created this function which caters for bigint and one leading zero or other single character (max 20 chars returned) and allows for length of results less than length of input number:

create FUNCTION fnPadNum (
  @Num BIGINT --Number to be padded, @sLen BIGINT --Total length of results , @PadChar varchar(1))
  RETURNS VARCHAR(20)
  AS
  --Pads bigint with leading 0's
            --Sample:  "select dbo.fnPadNum(201,5,'0')" returns "00201"
            --Sample:  "select dbo.fnPadNum(201,5,'*')" returns "**201"
            --Sample:  "select dbo.fnPadNum(201,5,' ')" returns "  201"
   BEGIN
     DECLARE @Results VARCHAR(20)
     SELECT @Results = CASE 
     WHEN @sLen >= len(ISNULL(@Num, 0))
     THEN replicate(@PadChar, @sLen - len(@Num)) + CAST(ISNULL(@Num, 0) AS VARCHAR)
     ELSE CAST(ISNULL(@Num, 0) AS VARCHAR)
     END

     RETURN @Results
     END
     GO

     --Usage:
      SELECT dbo.fnPadNum(201, 5,'0')
      SELECT dbo.fnPadNum(201, 5,'*')
      SELECT dbo.fnPadNum(201, 5,' ')