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Adding Leading Zeros To Integer Values

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You have values in a column stored as integers but you would like to display 8 characters always. If you have 123 you would like to show 00000123. The trick is to use the RIGHT function, "the number of characters desired" + the column, "the number of characters desired". For example RIGHT("00000000' + Column,8)

Let's take a look, first create this table

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CREATE TABLE #Numbers(Num INT)
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('1')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('12')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('123')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('1234')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('12345')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('123456')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('1234567')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('12345678')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('123456789')

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SELECT RIGHT('00000000' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),Num),8)
FROM #Numbers

Output

00000001
00000012
00000123
00001234
00012345
00123456
01234567
12345678
0000000*

As you can see the last row has the value 0000000*. This is because converting to varchar(8) truncated the value. If we increase our convert and right functions to use 9 instead of 8 characters we are fine. Run the same query again.

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SELECT RIGHT('00000000' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(9),Num),9)
FROM #Numbers

output

000000001
000000012
000000123
000001234
000012345
000123456
001234567
012345678
123456789

What about negative values? What if you want to show -00000123 instead of -123? First insert these 4 rows

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INSERT #Numbers VALUES('-122')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('-1')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('-777777')
INSERT #Numbers VALUES('-123456789')

Now we will run the same query again

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SELECT RIGHT('00000000' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(9),Num),9)
FROM #Numbers

Here is what those 4 rows look like that we just inserted

(output)
00000-122
0000000-1
00-777777
00000000*

That is not good. Here is what we will do, if the number is negative we will start with a minus sign other wise a blank and then we will concatenate and replace the minus sign with a blank. This is what it looks like in SQL

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