SUBSTRING

Retrieve 3 characters from a string, starting at position 1.

SELECT SUBSTRING(‘SQL Tutorial’, 1, 3) AS ExtractString;

Definition and Usage

The SUBSTRING() function retrieves a specified number of characters from a string.

SUBSTRING(string, start, length)

Parameter	Description
string	Required: Specifies the string from which to extract characters.
start	Required: Specifies the starting position for extraction, where the first position in the string is numbered 1.
length	Required: Specifies the number of characters to extract from the string. This value must be positive.

Works in:

SQL Server (from 2008 onward), Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and Parallel Data Warehouse

Retrieve 5 characters from the “CustomerName” column, starting at position 1.

SELECT SUBSTRING(CustomerName, 1, 5) AS ExtractString
FROM Customers;

Retrieve 100 characters from a string, starting at position 1.

SELECT SUBSTRING(‘SQL Tutorial’, 1, 100) AS ExtractString;