.. _pad_field_value-snip:

======================
Pad Field Value
======================

Sometimes you want to pad out a fields value by adding something at the front of the data in that field.

For example you have some numbers that are codes and they start at 1 and go to 151.  But you need the codes to be 3 digits long so rather than 7 you need the number to be formatted as 007.

Rule Type Format
=========================

    lpad(field name , how many characters you want , what character to pad it with)

    rpad(field name , how many characters you want , what character to pad it with)


Snippits
=========================


Pad the left - Text Value
----------------------------------------

Pad the left of the current value with a character.

Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = lpad(FieldName , 5 , x)


Examples
+++++++++

* abc becomes xxabc

* y becomes xxxxy


Pad the left - Number Value
----------------------------------------

Pad the left of the current value with a number.

Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = lpad(FieldName , 3 , 1)

Examples
+++++++++

* 9 become 119

* 99 become 199


Pad the right - Text Value
------------------------------------------

Pad the right of the current value with a character.

Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = rpad(FieldName , 5 , x)


Examples
+++++++++

* abc becomes abcxx

* y becomes yxxxx


Pad the right - Number Value
------------------------------------------

Pad the right of the current value with a number


Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = lpad(FieldName , 3 , 1)

Examples
+++++++++

* 9 become 900

* 99 become 991


Pad the left or right with blank spaces
----------------------------------------

If you want to pad the field with spaces you do not need to define the character to pad it with, it will use a blank space by default. 

Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = lpad(FieldName , 5)

Rule Attribute = rpad(FieldName , 5)

Examples
+++++++++

* abc becomes '  abc'

* abc becomes 'abc  '


Pad a number on the left with zeros
-------------------------------------

If you pad a number on the left with zero's and then import the data into a tool such as excel, excel will drop the leading zero's.  So you need to convert the field to be a string not a number so that excel will retain the leading zero's.

Remember to make the padding character a sting value as well so '0' not 0.

Rule Type = Calculated Output Field

Rule Attribute = lpad(cast(FieldName as string),3,'0')


Examples
+++++++++

* 9 becomes '009'

* 129 becomes '129'