Firebird 2.1 Language Reference Update

Added in: 2.1
Internal functions
Description: Right-pads a string with spaces or with a user-supplied string until a given length is reached.
Result type: VARCHAR(32765) or BLOB
Syntax:
Examples:
RPAD (str, endlen [, padstr])
• This function fully supports text BLOBs of any length and character set.
• If str is a BLOB, the result is a BLOB. Otherwise, the result is a VARCHAR(32765).
• If padstr is given and equals '' (empty string), no padding takes place.
• If endlen is less than the current string length, the string is truncated to endlen, even if padstr
is the empty string.
Important
If the external function RPAD is declared in your database, it will override the internal function. To make the
internal function available, DROP or ALTER the external function (UDF).
Tip
With (VAR)CHARs, it is generally wise to CAST the result to a smaller size. The default result length of 32765
may, in combination with other output columns, lead to a “block size exceeds implementation restriction” error.
rpad ('Hello', 12) -- returns 'Hello '
rpad ('Hello', 12, '-') -- returns 'Hello-------'
rpad ('Hello', 12, '') -- returns 'Hello'
rpad ('Hello', 12, 'abc') -- returns 'Helloabcabca'
rpad ('Hello', 12, 'abcdefghij') -- returns 'Helloabcdefg'
rpad ('Hello', 2) -- returns 'He'
rpad ('Hello', 2, '-') -- returns 'He'
rpad ('Hello', 2, '') -- returns 'He'
Warning
See also: LPAD()
When used on a BLOB, this function may need to load the entire object into memory. Although it does try to
limit memory consumption, this may affect performance if huge BLOBs are involved.
Available in: DSQL, PSQL
SIGN()
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