The MID() Function
The MID() function is used to extract characters from a text field.
SQL MID() Syntax
| SELECT MID(column_name,start[,length]) FROM table_name |
| Parameter | Description |
| column_name | Required. The field to extract characters from |
| start | Required. Specifies the starting position (starts at 1) |
| length | Optional. The number of characters to return. If omitted, the MID() function returns the rest of the text |
SQL MID() Example
We have the following "Persons" table:
| P_Id | LastName | FirstName | Address | City |
| 1 | Hansen | Ola | Timoteivn 10 | Sandnes |
| 2 | Svendson | Tove | Borgvn 23 | Sandnes |
| 3 | Pettersen | Kari | Storgt 20 | Stavanger |
Now we want to extract the first four characters of the "City" column above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
| SELECT MID(City,1,4) as SmallCity FROM Persons |
The result-set will look like this:
