Vol. I · A Postgres Handbook

The Query & the Schema

A reading-room reference for writing PostgreSQL by hand — selects to window functions, with the schema in plain view.

EasyString Functions

Pad strings to fixed width for reports

The query

SQL
SELECT
  LPAD(emp_id::TEXT, 6, '0') AS emp_id_padded,
  RPAD(first_name, 20, '.') AS name_padded,
  LPAD(salary::TEXT, 12, ' ') AS salary_aligned
FROM employees
ORDER BY emp_id;
Tested against PostgreSQL 16

Note

“LPAD left-pads, RPAD right-pads. Useful for fixed-width reports or generating ID strings with leading zeros.

Tables referenced