FORMULA & SQL / TEXT

Add leading zeros.
Tested, not guessed.

The Excel and Google Sheets formula and the SQL query, each run on the rows below. Open this with your own data ↗

The example rows

Row	A: Region	B: Rep	C: Amount	D: Order Date	E: Status	F: Customer
2	North	Ana	1,200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
3	South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
4	North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
5	East	Ana	980.50	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross
6	North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
7	West	Dee	1,640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro

Excel

=TEXT(A2,"000000")

Region (A2) formatted as "000000".

Run on the example rows:

PostgreSQL

SELECT *, LPAD(region::text, 6, '0') AS padded
FROM sales

Other databases

MySQL

SELECT *, LPAD(region, 6, '0') AS padded
FROM sales

SQL Server

SELECT *, RIGHT(REPLICATE('0', 6) + CAST(region AS varchar(50)), 6) AS padded
FROM sales

SQLite

SELECT *, substr('000000' || region, -6) AS padded
FROM sales

BigQuery

SELECT *, LPAD(CAST(region AS STRING), 6, '0') AS padded
FROM sales

Snowflake

SELECT *, LPAD(region, 6, '0') AS padded
FROM sales

Paste your rows into the free tool and it writes this for your columns, then runs it on your data before you copy it. Open the tool ↗