Trim Leading Characters using SQL functions

The code sample is a snippet that trims the leading characters in the input string.

For example, if the input is " hi " (please ignore quotes), and we choose to remove leading spaces, the output will be "hi ".

Trimming, generally, is a popular string manipulation function that helps remove unnecessary leading and trailing characters. This function removes the leading spaces alone.

								
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_Trim_leading_characters] ( @Input VARCHAR(50), @LeadingCharacter CHAR(1) )
RETURNS VARCHAR(50)
AS
BEGIN
    RETURN REPLACE(LTRIM(REPLACE(@Input, ISNULL(@LeadingCharacter, '0'), ' ')), 
                   ' ', ISNULL(@LeadingCharacter, '0'))
END
GO