Question

I have a stored procedure. I pass in 1 variable, called @p_FR, which is a char(6). However, the passed value is not always 6 characters long. Sometimes the value is only 4 or 5 characters long. I need to make sure that the string is always 6 characters long. For example, if @p_FR is 8534, then I need to add 2 leading 0’s to @p_FR, so it would be 008534.

I tried doing

set @fr = right('000000', @p_FR, 6)

@fr is a varchar(6)

but when @p_FR is 8534, @fr is still 8534. I need it to be 008534.

I also set the following block of code in a fresh query, and I still got 8534.

declare @p_FR as char(6),
    @fr as varchar(6)
set @p_FR = '8534'
set @fr = right('000000' + @p_FR, 6) 
select @fr

Answer 1

Use rtrim to remove blanks:

declare @p_FR as char(6),
    @fr as varchar(6)
set @p_FR = '8534'
set @fr = right('000000' + rtrim(@p_FR), 6) 
select @fr