SQL Server 2000 - force decimal value to 4 decimal places

Try using MONEY.

set newvalue = cast(substring(t1.Column1,3,6) as money)

What are you storing this as?
The DECIMAL(5,4) should have worked now that I think about it.  MONEY will probably not show trailing zero where as the decimal should...your issue is probably the datatype of the column itself.  As Brandon said, if it is character, then you can add '000' to the end and take left 6 characters.

Thanks for your responses.  
Brandon,
I am loading into a decimal field, not a varchar field.
set newvalue = cast(substring(t1.Column1,3,6) as decimal(5,4))

mwvisa1,
This is not a money value and the value must have 4 decimal places in the end.  Is there another way to handle this?

Thanks,
Alexis

Brandon is correct this is the way its stored and presented, if you need trailing zero's you have to convert to char and pad the extras on.

have a look at this article.

http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/03/10/sql-server-pad-ride-side-of-number-with-0-fixed-width-number-display/

Ritesh.... That is what I posted.  and again, that won't work in numeric columns.

yes Brandon, that's true. few more example in this link, especially Solution 3

http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/03/16/sql-server-udf-pad-ride-side-of-number-with-0-fixed-width-number-display/

Thanks, everyone.  Brandon, I thought about this some more.  What you are saying should work if I pad the string I have before doing the cast into the decimal field.  I will try that now.
Alexis

Thanks, RiteshShah.  I changed your function to work the other side since I am padding right.  But it doesn't work with the decimal point.  My values will be .323 or .4354, etc.  I am just going to try to do something very simple to just add zeroes based on the length of the string I am working with.  I'll let you know how it goes.
Alexis

Actually on second thoughts you can achieve the same with decimal, as in (where YoueColumnValue is defined as decimal(5,4) ):
CAST(varchar(20), YourColumnValue, 2)

If it is defined as varchar, then:
CAST(varchar(20), CAST(YourColumnValue as decimal(5,4)), 2)

The database will never store and extra zeros.  

What exactly isn't working that you need them?  Is this an application thing?  If so, leave it to your application to format the number how you desire.

Hi everyone,
Yes, the application is not formatting the number correctly and that will be resolved.  But, for now, we have users that need correct data so I had to do a quick fix from my end until the engineer who wrote the application that gives me the load data can fix his side.

I believe I have made the correct fix and will be testing it in a few minutes.  Someone is using the system now and creating more records to be loaded so I want to wait until they are done so I can test systematically without any new files coming in.

We have several databases with millions of records.  Thousands of records are added every 6 hours.  I wanted to avoid making any database changes if possible.
 
As soon as I am done testing, I will report back.  I believe you have all given me the info I needed to fix the problem.
Thanks,
Alexis

It's not a database issue though.  Trailing zeros on the decimal and leading zeros in the integer aren't maintained.  They are implied.  

ex.

1 = 0001 = 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

Where does it stop?

Brandon,
Thanks for the info.  There is a lot more going on here than I have explained.  I only needed to get this one little piece working so I didn't get into all the details of this process.  

Thank you all for your help.  I am going to close this question as you have all answered my question.  I will open another question if I have further issues.
Thanks,
Alexis