getting initial of name

[claire]

Hi

I can't seem to get the search to give me what I want.

My SELECT statement in MySQL db looks like this

$svar = mysql_query("SELECT Andel,
substring_index(Namn,' ',1) AS surname,
substring_index(Namn,' ',-1) AS firstname
FROM Uppgifter
WHERE Andel>=24 AND Andel <=48
GROUP BY Andel, surname
ORDER BY Andel ") or die ("unable to perform query");

I want only the first initial of the firstname. What I can't figure out is how to use the delimiter (blank space) together with the lengt statement which is found in the SUBSTRING(str,lenght) statement.

I also tried this

...
substring_index(Namn,' ',-1) AS firstname
LEFT('firstname',1)
...

but that didn't work.

Any ideas??

[mcgruff]

I expect you know this but substr($name, 0, 1) would do it in php - maybe not what you're loking for though.

I've never had to use mysql query logic much so can't help there.

[claire]

Figured it out!

Thanks