SQL 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:

Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Navis	Anto	Madras	TVL
2	Ji	Bala	Bombay	TVL
3	Christopher	Franklin	America	KK

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:

SmallCity

Sand

Sand

Stav