SQL MID() Function

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# SQL MID() Function

## The 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:

P_Id | LastName | FirstName | Address | City
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | Hansen | Ola | Timoteivn 10 | Sandnes
2 | Svendson | Tove | Borgvn 23 | Sandnes
3 | Pettersen | Kari | Storgt 20 | Stavanger

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

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)