Pad a string with leading zeros so it's 3 characters long in SQL Server 2008

Question

I have a string that is up to 3 characters long when it\'s first created in SQL Server 2008 R2.

I would like to pad it with leading zeros, so if its original value w

Answer 1

I had similar problem with integer column as input when I needed fixed sized varchar (or string) output. For instance, 1 to '01', 12 to '12'. This code works:

SELECT RIGHT(CONCAT('00',field::text),2)

If the input is also a column of varchar, you can avoid the casting part.