rpad()

The rpad() function pads the right side of a string by repeating a padding string and returns a result of the specified length.

Syntax

Parameters

STR

The original string field or value. Non-string values are converted to a string before processing.

LENGTH

The target length of the result string. Must be an integer between 1 and 10240 inclusive. If specified as a constant that is out of range, a parsing error is raised. If the value is out of range at runtime, null is returned.

PAD

(Optional) The padding string to fill on the right. If omitted, a space () is used. If an empty string ("") is specified, it is treated as a space.

Description

The rpad() function pads the right side of STR by repeating PAD until the total length reaches LENGTH, and returns the result.

• If STR is null, the function returns null.
• If STR is longer than LENGTH, the function truncates STR to LENGTH characters and returns the result.
• If LENGTH is null or not an integer, the function returns null.
• If PAD is null, the function returns null.
• If PAD consists of multiple characters, it is repeated and then trimmed to exactly LENGTH characters.

Error codes

Usage examples

To prepare the WEB_APACHE_SAMPLE table used in these examples, refer to Preparing sample data.

1. Right-pad HTTP methods with spaces to 10 characters

   table limit=5 WEB_APACHE_SAMPLE | eval result = rpad(method, 10) | fields method, result
   | # result: "GET       ", "POST      ", etc.
   

2. Pad with a specific character

   table limit=5 WEB_APACHE_SAMPLE | eval result = rpad(method, 8, "-") | fields method, result
   | # result: "GET-----", "POST----", etc.
   

3. Use a multi-character padding string

   json "{'val': 'hello'}" | eval result = rpad(val, 10, "pad")
   | # result: "hellopadpa"
   

4. Original string is longer than the target length

   json "{'val': 'hello'}" | eval result = rpad(val, 3, "x")
   | # result: "hel"
   

5. NULL input

   json "{'val': null}" | eval result = rpad(val, 8, "*")
   | # result: null
   

Compatibility

The rpad() function is available since before Sonar 4.0.