SUBSTRING()

SUBSTRING() is a SQL function in the String Functions category. Extracts characters from a string starting at position `start` for `length` characters. The syntax is SUBSTRING(string, start, length). It accepts string, start (1-based), length. It returns extracted substring. A typical example: SELECT SUBSTRING('Hello World', 1, 5); -- 'Hello' SELECT SUBSTRING(name, 1, 3) FROM employees; A close relative is CONCAT(), which concatenates two or more strings into one string. Returns NULL if any argument is NULL. A close relative is REPLACE(), which replaces all occurrences of `from_string` with `to_string` in a string. A close relative is LENGTH(), which returns the number of characters in a string. More about this category: String manipulation — CONCAT, SUBSTRING, REPLACE, TRIM, UPPER, LOWER, LENGTH. Related String Functions entries: CONCAT(), REPLACE(), LENGTH(), TRIM(), UPPER(), LOWER(), LPAD() / RPAD(), INSTR(). This page is part of the free SQL Reference documentation covering 762+ statements, functions, and clauses, each with syntax, parameters, return values, and examples for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and SQLite.