Leftpad doesn't work when concatenating with "+" (and number-like strings are converted to numbers)

[Nick_HE]

When you concatenate a string using + instead of concatenate(), LeftPadding is ignored:

In fact, this led me to realize that all number-like strings are first forced to numbers before being converted back into strings for concatenation.

"Hello" + 007
= “Hello7” (fair enough)

"Hello" + "007"
= “Hello7” (unexpected)

Perhaps this is the intended behaviour, but I certainly find it weird

[Pch]

You’re not the first one mentioning this (or alike) in those past few days

String concatenation failure

The following formula: ":"+"004" returns the string ":4" All zeros are gone. What happened? Meanwhile, I use the workaround: Format(":{1}","004")

I have no idea if it’s intended or not though …

But I like this point of view concerning this trouble :

String concatenation failure

The + is like concatenate() but not exactly because it can also do maths (addition). Because of this, it tries to do math on things and appears to be treating your “004” as an integer; since 004 = 4 as an integer, it drops the preceding zeroes. concat(), concatenate() and format() are great ways to get around this nuance.

[Federico_Stefanato]

Hi @Nick_HE,
I think that the “+” operator works in string concatenation just as a side effect.
This is the reason why Concatenate() and Format() are provided, I guess.

I would not recommend to use it for safe string concatenation, unless a fully overloaded behaviour (i.e. an explicit type interpolation is implemented in the string context) will be provided (if ever).

Cheers!

[Marko_Petrovic]

I don’t think + was intended for use in “concatenate” cases at all. As someone already mentioned I think it main purpose is to be used in math operations and as @Federico_Stefanato mentioned Concatenate() and Format() functions are there to cover “text formatting” use cases.