# LPAD

Pads the beginning of a string up to the specified character length.

## Syntax

```sql
LPAD (str, len, padding)

```

## Arguments

* str: any string or binary object
* len: total length of the string
* padding: the characters to pad with

## Return Type

String

## Examples

```sql
SELECT LPAD('ohai',10,'_') as o;

```

```output

+------------+
| o          |
+------------+
| ______ohai |
+------------+

```

```sql
SELECT LPAD('123',10,'0') as o;

```

```output

+------------+
| o          |
+------------+
| 0000000123 |
+------------+
```

## Related Topics

* [RPAD](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/rpad.md)

> **⚠️ Warning**: ## Implicit CollationWhen `character_set_server` is set to `utf8`, string literals with characters using 4-byte encoding are implicitly assigned binary collation and processed as a sequence of bytes rather than characters. This implicit conversion to binary collation causes string functions to return unexpected results. To avoid using implicit binary collation, either use explicit type casting or use database columns defined with the `utf8mb4` character set. For more information, refer to [Implicit Collation in Special Cases](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/character-encoding/special-cases.md).

***

Modified at: March 22, 2024

Source: [/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/lpad/](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/lpad/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)