MariaDB SPACE() Function

In MariaDB, SPACE() is a built-in string function that returns a string consisting of a specified number of spaces.

MariaDB SPACE() Syntax

Here is the syntax of the MariaDB SPACE() function:

SPACE(count)

Parameters

count

Required. The number of space symbols that make up the string.

If you provide the wrong number of parameters, MariaDB will report an error: ERROR 1582 (42000): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native function 'SPACE'.

Return value

The MariaDB SPACE() function returns a string consisting of the specified number of spaces.

If the argument count is less than 1, the SPACE() function returns an empty string ''.

If the argument is NULL, the SPACE() function will return NULL.

MariaDB SPACE() Examples

Basic usage

The following statement returns a string consisting of 30 spaces using the MariaDB SPACE():

SELECT SPACE(30);

Output:

+--------------------------------+
| SPACE(30)                      |
+--------------------------------+
|                                |
+--------------------------------+

Since spaces are invisible, you can use CHAR_LENGTH() to get the length of the string, as follows:

SELECT CHAR_LENGTH(SPACE(30));

Output:

+------------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH(SPACE(30)) |
+------------------------+
|                     30 |
+------------------------+

Empty string

If the argument count is less than 1, the SPACE() function returns an empty string ''.

SELECT LENGTH(SPACE(0)), LENGTH(SPACE(-1));

Output:

+------------------+-------------------+
| LENGTH(SPACE(0)) | LENGTH(SPACE(-1)) |
+------------------+-------------------+
|                0 |                 0 |
+------------------+-------------------+

In this example, we used LENGTH() to get their byte length.

Conclusion

In MariaDB, SPACE() is a built-in string function that returns a string consisting of a specified number of spaces.