Pad an article number (MATNR) with leading zeros

Your article shows as "4711" but SAP expects "000000000000004711"? Here's why, and how to add the leading zeros automatically, on a single value or a whole list.

Why these leading zeros?

The SAP article number (MATNR) is stored in a fixed-length field, often 18 characters, right-aligned and padded with zeros when the article is purely numeric. Depending on where you work (SE16 on the raw table, a load, an extraction), you sometimes have to provide the "padded" value: 4711 becomes 000000000000004711.

By hand: tedious and error-prone

Counting the digits, adding the right number of zeros, doing it again for every reference in a list… it's a classic chore, and a single missing zero breaks the search. On a list of thirty articles, doing it manually is simply unmanageable.

With MyToolKit: a padding shortcut

MyToolKit offers a transformation that pads each value with leading zeros up to the target length (18 by default for a MATNR, adjustable). You can apply it to a single value, or to a whole list in one move, every line padded at once.

You can even chain it in a pipeline with other rules (remove duplicates, split into a column) before pasting the whole thing into SE16.

Frequently asked questions