REPLICATE (Transact-SQL)
Repeats a string value a specified number of times.
- string_expression
Is an expression of a character string or binary data type. string_expression can be either character or binary data.
NoteIf string_expression is not of type varchar(max) or nvarchar(max), REPLICATE truncates the return value at 8,000 bytes. To return values greater than 8,000 bytes, string_expression must be explicitly cast to the appropriate large-value data type.
- integer_expression
Is an expression of any integer type, including bigint. If integer_expression is negative, NULL is returned.
Compatibility levels can affect return values. For more information, see sp_dbcmptlevel.
A. Using REPLICATE
The following example replicates a 0 character four times in front of a production line code in the AdventureWorks database.
USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT [Name]
, REPLICATE('0', 4) + [ProductLine] AS 'Line Code'
FROM [Production].[Product]
WHERE [ProductLine] = 'T'
ORDER BY [Name]
GO
Here is the result set.
Name Line Code -------------------------------------------------- --------- HL Touring Frame - Blue, 46 0000T HL Touring Frame - Blue, 50 0000T HL Touring Frame - Blue, 54 0000T HL Touring Frame - Blue, 60 0000T HL Touring Frame - Yellow, 46 0000T HL Touring Frame - Yellow, 50 0000T ...
B. Using REPLICATE and DATALENGTH
The following example left pads numbers to a specified length as they are converted from a numeric data type to character or Unicode.
USE AdventureWorks;
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT name FROM sys.tables
WHERE name = 't1')
DROP TABLE t1;
GO
CREATE TABLE t1
(
c1 varchar(3),
c2 char(3)
)
GO
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('2', '2')
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('37', '37')
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('597', '597')
GO
SELECT REPLICATE('0', 3 - DATALENGTH(c1)) + c1 AS 'Varchar Column',
REPLICATE('0', 3 - DATALENGTH(c2)) + c2 AS 'Char Column'
FROM t1
GO
