The SUBSTRING function is used in SQL to extract characters of a specified length from a string. 1. Its basic usage includes three parameters: original string, starting position and extraction length; 2. The syntax of different database systems is slightly different, such as MySQL and PostgreSQL use FROM ... FOR ... SQL Server and Oracle use commas to separate parameters and the Oracle function is called SUBSTR; 3. Common application scenarios include extracting some information in the field (such as extracting year from the ID number) and processing URL or path (with functions such as CHARINDEX to extract specific content); 4. When using it, you should pay attention to potential problems such as index starting from 1, out-of-bounds without errors, multi-byte character encoding issues, and NULL value processing. Mastering these key points makes SUBSTRING a practical string processing tool.
Use the SUBSTRING
function in SQL, mainly to extract characters of a specified length from a string. Different database systems have slightly different support for SUBSTRING
, but the basic usage is similar.

Basic syntax and parameter description
SUBSTRING
usually requires three parameters: original string, starting position, and extract length .

Take MySQL and PostgreSQL as examples:
SUBSTRING(string FROM start_position FOR length)
SQL Server and Oracle support similar writing methods:

SUBSTRING(string, start_position, length)
For example, if you want to extract 'World'
from 'Hello World'
, you can write it like this:
SELECT SUBSTRING('Hello World', 7, 5);
This starts with the 7th character and takes 5 characters.
Notice:
- The index is counted from 1 , not from 0.
- If the location you pass in exceeds the string length, the result may be empty or an error, depending on the database system.
Common scenarios in practical applications
Extract some information in the field
For example, there is a column that is the ID number, and you want to extract the year of birth (assuming the format is YYYYMMDDXXXXXX
):
SELECT SUBSTRING(id_number, 1, 4) AS birth_year FROM users;
This way, the years can be extracted separately for analysis.
Process URL or path
If your data stores a webpage path, such as /user/profile/12345
, you can use SUBSTRING
with other functions (such as CHARINDEX
or POSITION
) to extract the user ID.
For example in SQL Server:
SELECT SUBSTRING(url, CHARINDEX('/profile/', url) 9, 5) AS user_id FROM logs;
Here you first find the location of /profile/
, then skip it, and then extract the 5 digits.
Differences between different database systems
Although the functions are similar, the syntax of each database may be slightly different:
- MySQL/PostgreSQL uses
FROM ... FOR ...
- SQL Server uses comma-separated parameters
- Oracle also uses commas, but the function name is
SUBSTR
For example in Oracle:
SELECT SUBSTR('Hello World', 7, 5) FROM dual;
So when you switch the database, remember to check the document to confirm whether the syntax is consistent.
Issues that are easy to ignore when using
- There will be no errors when indexes are out of bounds : some databases will automatically process the starting position or length outside the range, and will directly return an empty string instead of an error.
- Multi-byte character problems such as Chinese : If your field contains Chinese, pay attention to the impact of character encoding in some systems.
SUBSTRING
may be operated in units of "bytes" rather than "characters", which may lead to incomplete truncation. - NULL value processing : If the original string is NULL, the entire expression will also return NULL. Please add
COALESCE
as a guarantee.
Basically that's it. SUBSTRING
is a very practical gadget as long as you figure out the database version, starting position and length.
The above is the detailed content of How to use the SUBSTRING function in SQL. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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