The MID() function is used to extract values from a column. The MID() contain three (3) parameters. The first one is used to select which column to extract, the second one is the starting position, the last one is the number of characters to be extracted.

SQL MID() Syntax

SELECT

MID(

column_name,

START

[

,

LENGTH

]

)

FROM

TABLE_NAME

Consider the following table for this exercise

Users

Firstname

Lastname

Salary

DeptID

John

Smith

1000

1

Mathew

Simon

3000

1

Bill

Steve

2200

1

Amanda

Rogers

1800

2

Steve

Hills

2800

2

Steve

jobs

2400

2

bill

cosby

700

3

Example # 1

SELECT

MID(

Firstname,

1

,

3

)

FROM

Users

This will extract the Firstname column from our table.

Result of the Query

Firstname

JOH

MAT

BIL

AMA

STE

STE

BIL

The result shows the first three (3) characters of the Firstname column.

You can also start the position to whatever you like.

Example # 2

SELECT

MID(

Firstname,

2

,

3

)

FROM

Users

This will extract the value of Firstname starting from 2.

Firstname

ohn

ath

ill

man

tev

tev

ill