How to achieve same functionality for String as java in oracle 10g

Question

Example:
In java if I use
--------------->>>
String.format("%03d", 11) then it will give me result 011
String.format("%03d", 1111) then it will give me result 1111
I need same result in Oracle also for a stored procedure. I have used to_char() and lpad() both the function but couldn't get the desirable.
I'm new to this. Please forgive for this silly question and help me.

Answer 1

to_char, like this:
with my_tab as (select 11 col1 from dual union all
                select 1111 col1 from dual union all
                select 8 col1 from dual)
-- end of mimicking data in a table called my_tab
select col1, to_char(col1, 'fm9999099')) formatted_col1
from   my_tab;
      COL1 FORMATTED_COL1
        11 011          
      1111 1111         
         8 008  ETA: You need to make sure that the format mask in the to_char has enough characters to hold the largest number, and that the zero is in the position you want smaller numbers to be padded to (eg. in the example above, the 0 is in the 3rd from the right position).
Edited by: Boneist on 22-Apr-2010 11:34
ETA2: as reminded by odie_63, the fm in the format removes the spaces from the resulting string.
Edited by: Boneist on 22-Apr-2010 11:38