Original Post here In dealing with NULL values in SQL Server, the developer is often faced with the requirement to evaluate the content of a field, and when said field in null, return another value (or field). There are two functions in SQL Server which support this requirement: ISNULL() and COALESCE.() ISNULL COALESCE ISNULL [...]

Following example will pad ’0′ to left of a string ’16′ to ’016′. RIGHT(’000′ + RTRIM(DEPARTMENTNUMBER), 3) UPDATE DEPARTMENT SET DEPARTMENTNUMBER = RIGHT(’000′ + RTRIM(DEPARTMENTNUMBER), 3), OFFICEDEPARTMENT = OFFICENUMBER + ‘-’ + RIGHT(’000′ + RTRIM(DEPARTMENTNUMBER), 3)