> ... it seems the "lpad", "rpad" don't work, > when I type: > select lpad('laser', 4, 'a'); > in psql, the result is still > 'laser', the same with 'rpad', > Is it a bug or I'm mis-understaning the lpad and/or rpad functions? A simple misunderstanding. The length argument is for the *total* length. So padding a 5 character string to a length of 4 will do nothing. But padding to a length of 6 will add a single "a" to the string. - Thomas