Zero Suppress

Zero suppress refers to the process of removing extra zeros from a string that represents a number. It can also refer to the process where zeros are replaced with spaces or other characters.

This is mainly used to tidy up the appearance of displays or to convert fixed-length string data back into numeric data.

The opposite of zero suppress is zero padding, which refers to the process of filling in ‘0’ for parts that do not meet the specified number of digits.

Examples of Zero Suppress

Remove leading zeros 
"000050" ->  "50"

Remove leading zeros

"0000.50" ->  "0.50"

Remove trailing zeros

"3.10" ->  "3.1"
"3.0"  ->  "3.0" or "3"

Synonyms

Related Terms