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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T19:02:21+00:00

I have a table like the following : code —> INTEGER name —> CHAR

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I have a table like the following : 

code ---> INTEGER
name ---> CHAR

+------+------+
| code | name |
+------+------+
|  1   |  aa  |
|  2   |  bb  |
|  3   |  cc  |

I want to pad with left zeros the code field in this way : 

SELECT LPAD(code,5,'0') FROM table;

This query works well in MySQL but it doesn’t work on SQL Server and on PostgreSQL, i’m looking for a query that work on all databases or at least on these four :

  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • MSSQL
  • Firebird

without any changes . Is there a solution ?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The correct answer is “do this in your client”.
    There is no single solution at the RDBMS level

    However, for SQL Server 2012 (yes, next release), PostgreSQL and MySQL you can do this:

    RIGHT(CONCAT('00000', code), 5)
    • Newer PostgreSQL does have LPAD, SQL Server doesn’t
    • The various FORMAT functions are incompatible (but again need to wait until SQL Server 2012)
    • The RIGHT is consistent, but string concatenation operators are different
    • The CONCAT function is added in SQL Server 2012
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