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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-29T08:11:39+00:00

I have values like 11(space), 109, X(space)(space), 9(space)(space), 15(space) etc. in a column called

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I have values like ” 11(space)”, “109”, “X(space)(space)”, “9(space)(space)”, “15(space)” etc. in a column called MyCode that is varchar(3).

When I order them I have a prolbme like 11 appears before 109 when I ORDER them in ASC order.

I want to align the values to right by adding empty char in front so that ORDER would result:

 " 11"

 .. 

"109"

Question: How can I write my SELECT MyChar FROM MyTable so that for a value “1(space)(space)” it should return “(space)(space)1” etc. ?

@gbn: Your answer did what I needed but the output didnt change:

enter image description here

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Use this to always pad with leading spaces to a fixed length

    SELECT RIGHT(
      SPACE(5) + 
      REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(RTRIM(MyChar), CHAR(160), ''), CHAR(9), ''), CHAR(10), ''), CHAR(13), '')
    , 5) AS Justified
FROM MyTable 
ORDER BY Justified

    If you change one 5, you need to change both

    Edit: added RTRIM

    Edit 2: added hard space + other non-printable detection

    What does this give you?

    SELECT ASCII(RIGHT(MyChar, 1) FROM MyTable
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