SUBSTR

Extracts a string containing a specific number of characters from a particular position of a given string.

• The forms without a len argument return a substring from string str starting at position pos.
• The forms with a len argument return a substring len characters long from string str, starting at position pos.

It is also possible to use a negative value for pos. In this case, the beginning of the substring is pos characters from the end of the string, rather than the beginning. A negative value may be used for pos in any of the forms of this function. A value of 0 for pos returns an empty string. The position of the first character in the string from which the substring is to be extracted is reckoned as 1.

Syntax

SUBSTR(<str>, <pos>)

SUBSTR(<str>, <pos>, <len>)

Arguments

Arguments	Description
<str>	The main string from where the character to be extracted
<pos>	The position (starting from 1) the substring to start at. If negative, counts from the end
<len>	The maximum length of the substring to extract

Aliases

• SUBSTRING
• MID

Return Type

VARCHAR

Examples

SELECT
  SUBSTRING('Quadratically', 5),
  SUBSTR('Quadratically', 5),
  MID('Quadratically', 5);

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ substring('quadratically' from 5) │ substring('quadratically' from 5) │ mid('quadratically', 5) │
├───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ ratically                         │ ratically                         │ ratically               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SELECT
  SUBSTRING('Quadratically', 5, 6),
  SUBSTR('Quadratically', 5, 6),
  MID('Quadratically', 5, 6);

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ substring('quadratically' from 5 for 6) │ substring('quadratically' from 5 for 6) │ mid('quadratically', 5, 6) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ ratica                                  │ ratica                                  │ ratica                     │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘