SQL MID() Function

The MID() Function

The MID() function is used to extract characters from a text field.

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

We have the following "Persons" table:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Karmen	Kasa	Los Angels - USA	New Orleans
2	Jacob	Mary	Los Angels - USA	New Orleans
3	Maxwell	Glen	Australia	Sydney

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: