{"id":6000,"date":"2018-06-01T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/?p=6000"},"modified":"2023-11-29T11:33:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T11:33:05","slug":"sql-substring-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/sql-substring-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get SUBSTRING in SQL Databases?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What is the SQL SUBSTRING function?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The SUBSTRING function is used to return a part of the string by specified position.<\/div>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

SELECT SUBSTRING(‘SUBSTRING Examples’, 1, 9);<\/div>\n

In certain scenarios, we have columns that store large strings. However, this may be required to get only part of the large string for certain purposes.<\/p>\n

For getting part of a string from a long string, you may use the built-in function of SQL i.e. SUBSTRING<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Note:<\/strong> This function is called SUBSTRING in MS SQL Server while in MySQL database, this is called SUBSTR(), SUBSTRING, and MID function.<\/div>\n
All these functions in MySQL database extract the substring (See last two examples).<\/div>\n

Syntax of using SUBSTRING function in SQL Server<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The SUBSTRING function can be used as follows:<\/p>\n

SUBSTRING ( expression, start, length )<\/div>\n

Where:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Arguments<\/strong><\/td>\nDescription<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
expression<\/td>\nAn expression<\/strong> can be a string column name etc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
start<\/td>\nThe start parameter species from where the SUBSTRING function should start extracting in the given expression.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
length<\/td>\nThe length specifies the number of characters to extract in the given expression.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

An example of the SUBSTRING function<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Generally, you will use the SUBSTRING function to get the part of the string from the table data column. However, for its simple usage, let me show an example of a constant string in the SUBSTRING function.<\/p>\n

In the SUBSTRING function, the expression \u201cHello World\u201d is assigned and start<\/em> and length<\/em> arguments are given as follows:<\/p>\n

Query:<\/strong><\/p>\n

SELECT SUBSTRING('Hello World', 7, 5)\r\n\r\nAS \"The SUBSTRING\";<\/pre>\n
The output:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"SQL<\/p>\n
The value specifies to start extracting string from the letter \u2018W\u2019 and go till letter 5 i.e. World.<\/p>\n
The example of SUBSTRING SQL with table data<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Now, let us look at a real example of using the SUBSTRING function. For that, we have a phone field in our example table, sto_employees<\/em> that is used to store the staff information.<\/p>\n
The phone is stored in the following format:<\/p>\n
123-4567-457896<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By using the SUBSTRING function, we will get the second part of the phone number for each employee.<\/p>\n
For clarification, the original data of the phone along with employee names are also fetched along with data using the SUBSTRING function.<\/p>\n
Have a look at the SUBSTRING query and result set:<\/p>\n
SELECT emp_name, phone,\r\n\r\nSUBSTRING(phone, 5, 4)\r\n\r\nAS \"Phone four digits\"\u00a0 FROM sto_employees;<\/pre>\n
The result-set:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"SQL<\/p>\n
You can see the third column displays the second part of the phone number.<\/p>\n
Similarly, you may get the third part only by changing the starting position and length argument as follows:<\/p>\n
SELECT emp_name, phone,\r\n\r\nSUBSTRING(phone, 10, 6)\r\n\r\nAS \"Phone Third Part\"\u00a0 FROM sto_employees;<\/pre>\n
The result-set:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"SQL<\/p>\n
The third column shows the last six digits of the phone numbers for each employee.<\/p>\n
What if a negative starting position is given?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The following example shows using the MySQL SUBSTRING function with a negative starting position.<\/p>\n
The Query:<\/strong><\/p>\n
SELECT Product_Name, SUBSTRING(Product_Name, -1, 2)\r\n\r\nFROM `tbl_products`;<\/pre>\n
The result:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"MySQL<\/p>\n
You can see, the SUBSTRING function returned the last character from each product name.<\/p>\n
The SUBSTRING function in MySQL database starts counting from the end of the string if you provide a negative number. However, the MS SQL Server\u2019s SUBSTRING function does not.<\/div>\n
How to get a substring from right in SQL Server?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
If you require getting the substring from the right of a string then SQL Server has another function called RIGHT<\/strong>. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n
SELECT RIGHT('Learn SQL', 3);<\/pre>\n
The RIGHT function takes an expression and length to be returned for the substring.<\/div>\n
An example of using MySQL MID function <\/strong><\/h3>\n
As mentioned earlier, the SUBSTR and MID functions in MySQL database can also be used to extract the substring from a specified string.<\/p>\n
The following query shows using the MID function where we will get the four-length substring started at position three in the product name column.<\/p>\n
The MID query:<\/strong><\/p>\n
SELECT Product_Name, MID(Product_Name, 3, 5)\r\n\r\nFROM `tbl_products`;<\/pre>\n
\"MySQL<\/p>\n
You can see that it yielded the same result as we used the SUBSTRING function.<\/p>\n
Using the MySQL SUBSTR function<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Finally, see an example of SUBSTR MySQL function for the same table and positions in the products table:<\/p>\n
SELECT Product_Name, SUBSTR(Product_Name, 3, 5) AS \"Product Substring\"\r\n\r\nFROM `tbl_products`;<\/pre>\n
The resultset:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"MySQL<\/p>\n
You can see the same result in the above resultant table graphic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The SQL SUBSTRING function is used to return a part of the string by specified position. For example:
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