Stripping preceding zeros off zerofilled strings from MySQL

Does anyone know of an existing function that would strip off all initial zeros from a string? I have a MySQL db with 4 zero filled fields. I would like to show just the base number in the results of my query. i.e. I currently get 003 and 0049 and would like 3 and 49.

Thank you,

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bj

[This message has been edited by bjohnson (edited April 20, 2000).]

Somebody told me to use:<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">code:</font><HR><pre>
$nozeros = sprintf("%01d", $chapter);
[/code]
It works, but I was wondering if that is the best approach. I now get 3 instead of 00003.