Extracting a certain number of chars...

[Anon]

I\'m wondering if anyone out there knows how to extract a certain number of characters from a text field in a Mysql database for display.

Example: I have text fields that contain information entered by customers and want to display a listing of all records that pertain to a certain staff member. In order to facilitate the selection of the correct problem I want to display the first 128 characters of the text field in the listing.

[jordan]

FYI, there's a very large section of the MySQL section dedicated to string functions. But rather than trouble you with looking it up yourself, I'll just save my breath and tell you: Use the MySQL function SUBSTRING():

SELECT SUBSTRING(field_name,1,128) FROM ...

or

SELECT SUBSTRING(field_name,1,128) AS some_name FROM ...

Not so tough, eh? Note that MySQL's string functions differently than PHP's, in that the first character has an index of 1 rather than zero, so MySQL's SUBSTRING('abc',1,1) will return 'a', whereas PHP's substr('abc',1,1) will return 'b'. By the way, PHP's substr() would be another way to solve your problem. Do us a favor, though, and look it up next time.