Formatting Numbers by padding with leading zeros in SQL Server

Question

Change the number 6 to whatever your total length needs to be:

SELECT REPLICATE('0',6-LEN(EmployeeId)) + EmployeeId

If the column is an INT, you can use RTRIM to implicitly convert it to a VARCHAR

SELECT REPLICATE('0',6-LEN(RTRIM(EmployeeId))) + RTRIM(EmployeeId)

And the code to remove these 0s and get back the 'real' number:

SELECT RIGHT(EmployeeId,(LEN(EmployeeId) - PATINDEX('%[^0]%',EmployeeId)) + 1)

Just use the FORMAT function (works on SQL Server 2012 or newer):

SELECT FORMAT(EmployeeID, '000000')
FROM dbo.RequestItems
WHERE ID=0 

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh213505.aspx

You can change your procedure in this way

SELECT Right('000000' + CONVERT(NVARCHAR, EmployeeID), 6) AS EmpIDText, 
       EmployeeID
FROM dbo.RequestItems 
WHERE ID=0 

However this assumes that your EmployeeID is a numeric value and this code change the result to a string, I suggest to add again the original numeric value

EDIT Of course I have not read carefully the question above. It says that the field is a char(6) so EmployeeID is not a numeric value. While this answer has still a value per se, it is not the correct answer to the question above.

Hated having to CONVERT the int, and this seems much simpler. Might even perform better since there's only one string conversion and simple addition.

select RIGHT(1000000 + EmployeeId, 6) ...

Just make sure the "1000000" has at least as many zeros as the size needed.