SQL Server UDF to pad a string

While Transact-SQL (T/SQL) does not offer a comparable function similar to LPAD or RPAD available in other RDBMSs, the SQL Server Professional does have the REPLICATE() function that can be used to build a simple user-defined function that can be used to pad a string. Let's take a look at the REPLICATE() function and what it offers before moving on to the code for the custom padding function.

REPLICATE (string_expression ,integer_expression) will allow you to replicate a character string (the string_expression parameter the number of times consecutively per the integer_expression parameter).

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