Retrieve a portion of a string by starting at the fifth position and extracting three characters.
| SELECT SUBSTR(“SQL Tutorial”, 5, 3) AS ExtractString; |
The SUBSTR() function retrieves a substring from a string, beginning at any position.
Note: The first character in the string is at position 1.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
S Q L T u t o r i a l
Note: The last character in the string is positioned at -1.
-12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1
S Q L T u t o r i a l
Note: Both the SUBSTR() and MID() functions are equivalent to the SUBSTRING() function.
| SUBSTR(string, start, length) |
OR:
| SUBSTR(string FROM start FOR length) |
|
Parameter |
Description |
|
string |
Mandatory. The string from which extraction is required. |
|
start |
Necessary. Specifies the starting position, which can be either positive or negative. A positive number indicates extraction from the beginning of the string, while a negative number indicates extraction from the end of the string. |
|
length |
Optional. Specifies the quantity of characters to extract. If not provided, the entire string from the starting position will be returned. |
| Works in: | From MySQL 4.0 |
Retrieve a substring from the text within a column, beginning at the second position and extracting five characters.
| SELECT SUBSTR(CustomerName, 2, 5) AS ExtractString FROM Customers; |
Retrieve a substring from a string, starting from the end at position -5, and extract 5 characters.
| SELECT SUBSTR(“SQL Tutorial”, –5, 5) AS ExtractString; |