Padding the beginning of a mysql INT field with zeroes

Question

I have an INT field in a large MySQL database containing incremental numbers in an INT field. These numbers are currently regular autoincrement numbers (1, 2, 3) but I need to pad them to three digits with zeroes at the beginning (so I get 001, 002, 003.. 010, 011, etc).

What commands can I run on my database to change this column into the format I need?

Answer 1

You can add a ZEROFILL attribute to the column to pad the data in the database or, when querying,

SELECT LPAD(CONVERT(`col`,VARCHAR(3)),3,'0')

to retreive the data formatted as a 3 digit number