PLSQL | RPAD Function

The PLSQL RPAD function is used for padding the right-side of a string with a specific set of characters. a prerequisite for this is that string shouldn’t be NULL. The RPAD function in PLSQL is useful for formatting the output of a query. The RPAD function accepts three parameters which are input_string, padded_length and the pad_string.

Both input_string and pad_string can be any of the datatypes CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, CLOB, or NCLOB. The string returned is of VARCHAR2 datatype if input_string is a character datatype.

The argument padded_length must be a NUMBER integer or a value that can be implicitly converted to a NUMBER integer.

If you do not specify pad_string, then the default is a single blank. If input_string is longer than padded_length, then this function returns the portion of input_string that fits in padded_length.

Syntax:

RPAD( input_string, padded_length, pad_string)

Parameters Used:

1. input_string – It is used to specify the string which needs to be formatted.
2. string_to_replace – It is used to specify the number of characters to return. If the padded_length is smaller than the original string, the RPAD function will truncate the string to the size of padded_length.
3. pad_string – It is an optional parameter which is used to specify the input_string that will be padded to the right-hand side of string. If this parameter is omitted, the RPAD function will pad spaces to the right-side of the input_string.

Supported Versions of Oracle/PLSQL:

1. Oracle 12c
2. Oracle 11g
3. Oracle 10g
4. Oracle 9i
5. Oracle 8i

Example-1:

DECLARE 
   Test_String string(20) := 'Geeksforgeeks';
   
BEGIN 
   dbms_output.put_line(RPAD(Test_String, '5')); 
   
END;     

Output:

Geeks 

Example-2:

DECLARE 
   Test_String string(20) := 'Geeksforgeeks';
   
BEGIN 
   dbms_output.put_line(RPAD(Test_String, '17')); 
   
END;    

Output:

Geeksforgeeks  

Example-3:

DECLARE 
   Test_String string(20) := 'Geeksforgeeks';
   
BEGIN 
   dbms_output.put_line(RPAD(Test_String, '17', '0')); 
   
END;  

Output:

Geeksforgeeks0000 

Example-4:

DECLARE 
   Test_String string(20) := 'Geeksforgeeks';
   
BEGIN 
   dbms_output.put_line(RPAD(Test_String, '5')); 
   
END;     

Output:

Geeksforgeek