MySQL LPAD Function

Overview

In this tutorial, we will learn about MySQL LPAD Function with some examples. We can use this function to left pad with padding characters until it reaches length characters.

MySQL LPAD Function

LPAD() function returns the string with the specified characters as left padded to the original given string until it reaches the length.

Syntax

The general syntax of the function is as follows:

LPAD(<string>,<length>,<padding>)

Examples

Let’s use the function and check the output of the function in this example.

mysql> SELECT LPAD(‘MySQL’,20,’ ‘);
+———————-+
| LPAD(‘MySQL’,20,’ ‘) |
+———————-+
| MySQL |
+———————-+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT LPAD(‘MySQL’,20,’&’);
+———————-+
| LPAD(‘MySQL’,20,’&’) |
+———————-+
| &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&MySQL |
+———————-+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL LPAD Function

In this example, let’s use the Country database table from the world MySQL database.
The column is the Name column that contains the country name. We will left pad the column values
with the * character.

mysql> SELECT Name, LPAD(Name,25,’*’)
-> FROM Country
-> WHERE Continent=’Asia’;

MySQL LPAD Function Example