SQL/MX 2.x Reference Manual (H06.04+)

SQL/MX Functions and Expressions

HP NonStop SQL/MX Reference Manual—540440-003

9-79

LPAD Function

The LPAD function replaces the leftmost specified number of characters in a character

expression with a padding character.

LPAD is an SQL/MX extension.

character-expr

is an SQL character value expression. The operand is the result of evaluating

character-expr. See Character Value Expressions on page 6-37.

count

specifies the number of characters to be replaced in character-expr. The

number count must be a value greater than or equal to zero of exact numeric data

type and with a scale of zero. The count must be less than or equal to the length

of the evaluation of the character-expr.

pad-character

specifies the padding character that replaces the leftmost count characters in the

character expression character-expr. If no pad-character is specified,

spaces is the padding character. For KANJI or KSC5601, the code value of

pad-character is hexadecimal 2020.

Examples of LPAD

•

Replace 'Robert' with spaces:

LPAD ('Robert John Smith', 6)

•

Use the LPAD function to replace the first character of the job descriptions with

'X':

UPDATE persnl.job

SET jobdesc = LPAD (jobdesc, 1, 'X');

LPAD (character-expr,count [,pad-character])