---

{ “title”: “FORMAT”, “language”: “en”, “description”: “The FORMAT function returns a string formatted using the specified format string and parameters.” }

Description

The FORMAT function returns a string formatted using the specified format string and parameters. The formatting rules follow the fmt format specification.

Syntax

FORMAT(<format>, <args>[, ...])

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<format>	Format string containing format placeholders. Type: VARCHAR
<args>	Parameters to be formatted (can be multiple). Type: ANY

Return Value

Returns VARCHAR type, representing the result formatted according to the format string.

Special cases:

• If any parameter is NULL, returns NULL
• Format string uses {} as placeholder
• Supports positional parameters (e.g., {0}, {1}) and named parameters
• Supports various format options (alignment, precision, padding, etc.)

Examples

1. Basic usage: Format number precision

SELECT format('{:.2}', pi());

+-----------------------+
| format('{:.2}', pi()) |
+-----------------------+
| 3.1                   |
+-----------------------+

2. Multiple parameter formatting

SELECT format('{0}-{1}', 'hello', 'world');

+-------------------------------------+
| format('{0}-{1}', 'hello', 'world') |
+-------------------------------------+
| hello-world                         |
+-------------------------------------+

3. Alignment and padding

SELECT format('{:>10}', 123);

+-----------------------+
| format('{:>10}', 123) |
+-----------------------+
|        123            |
+-----------------------+

4. NULL value handling

SELECT format('{:.2}', NULL);

+-----------------------+
| format('{:.2}', NULL) |
+-----------------------+
| NULL                  |
+-----------------------+

5. UTF-8 string handling

SELECT format('{0}-{1}', 'ṭṛṭṛ', 'ṭṛ');

+---------------------------------------------+
| format('{0}-{1}', 'ṭṛṭṛ', 'ṭṛ')             |
+---------------------------------------------+
| ṭṛṭṛ-ṭṛ                                     |
+---------------------------------------------+