first letter of field (mysql)

[Anon]

(Mysql/PHP) I know this will not work:

$query = "UPDATE $table SET status='off' WHERE subst('comments',1,1)='!'";

Any suggestions on how to get the same basic result? I need to set STATUS to "off" on every record that the first letter of the COMMENTS field is "!" Any suggestion?

[Anon]

Have you tried

$query = "UPDATE $table SET status='off' WHERE comments like '!%' ";