EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Blog
  • Free Courses
  • All Courses
  • All in One Bundle
  • Login
Home Data Science Data Science Tutorials SQL Tutorial SQL MID

SQL MID

By Payal UdhaniPayal Udhani

SQL MID

Introduction to SQL MID

When dealing with strings in SQL we have to perform various manipulations and operations on those strings to get the resultant string in the desired format. Many times, we come across the situation when we have to get the particular part of the string from the original string whether it be the beginning part, ending part, or in-between part of the string. In all those cases, the SQL function MID() comes to the rescue. We can use the MID() function to retrieve the part of the string from the original string which can be also called the substring of the original string in SQL.

In this article, we will learn about the general syntax of the SQL MID() function, its working, and then illustrate a few examples which will implement this function more understandable.

Start Your Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

Syntax:

The syntax of SQL’s MID() function is as follows:

SELECT MID(original string, starting point, number of characters)

In the above syntax, the original string is the string value variable, column, or any other expression in string format which you wish to dissect to fetch the part of that string value. The starting point is the index+1 from where we will begin the counting and retrieving the substring from the original string. Both the original string and the starting point are the required parameters and are must be specified while using the MID() function in SQL. The number of characters is an optional parameter that decides the length of the substring part that we are trying to retrieve. When not specified the whole string after the starting point will be retrieved as the substring. In case, is we specify the length that is the number of characters then only that many characters beginning from the starting point will be retrieved as the substring as the return value of the MID() function. The return value of the MID() function is a new string that is the substring that is formed after considering the starting point and the number of characters if mentioned.

Working

The MID() function begins the dissection process by traversing the string characters from the beginning and when it gets to the point of the starting point, it starts adding that character to the resultant string value. The number of characters that are being added is up to the end of the original string when the number of characters parameter that is optional is not mentioned while in case if that is mentioned then that many characters after starting point are added into the final result string that is to be returned. The working of the MID() function is the same as that of the SQL function SUBSTRING() that is used to find out the substring from the original string.

Examples of SQL MID

Let us consider some simple examples by firstly taking a static string and retrieving only the part of the string from that string. Consider a static string “HEY!GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!” from which we have to retrieve only the “GOOD MORNING” text that is only that part of the string then we can begin by deciding the starting point which will be 5 as the point of start of G character as its beginning value is always 1 and not 0 like array indexing. The “GOOD MORNING” text consists of 12 characters. Hence we will specify the number of characters parameter as 12. Our query statement will be as follows –

SELECT MID("HEY!GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!", 5, 12);

The output of the above query statement after execution is as follows:

SQL MID 1

As we can see the return value of the MID() function that we specified is “GOOD MORNING” text which is as expected.

Let us consider one more example by creating a new table named dictionary that will contain the columns that will store string values. We will use the following query statement to create our table with the desired columns in it.

CREATE TABLE `dictionary` (
`word` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
`meaning` varchar(5000) DEFAULT NULL,
`description` varchar(5000) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Let us insert a few records in the table dictionary to use them further for manipulating string values and retrieving substrings from it. We will use the following query for inserting records in the dictionary table

INSERT INTO `dictionary` (`word`, `meaning`, `description`) VALUES
('antonym', NULL, 'a word that means the opposite of another word'),
('connotation', NULL, 'an additional idea or emotion that a word suggests to you'),
('etymology', 'the study of the origins of words; the origins of a particular word', 'the study of the origins'),
('lexicography', 'the job or skill of writing dictionaries', 'writing dictionaries'),
('polysemy', NULL, 'the fact that some words can have more than one meaning'),
('thesaurus', 'a reference tool which shows groups of words that have similar meanings', 'representation of groups of words that have similar meanings'),
('knack', 'an acquired or natural skill at doing something.', 'natural skill'),
('flair', 'stylishness and originality.', 'originality'),
('panache', 'a tuft or plume of feathers', 'feather collection');
select * from dictionary;

That gives following output after the execution of the query –

SQL MID 2

Let us now apply the mid function to retrieve only the string with the last 10 characters from the description column. For this, we would have to first find the length of the column and then reduce 10 characters from the length to define the starting point. Our query statement will be as follows –

SELECT word, MID(description,length(description)-10) from dictionary;

that gives the following output:

SQL MID 3

Conclusion

We can make the use of the MID() function of SQL to retrieve the part of the string that is substring from the original string. This function can be used on string literals and string values, variables, and also the columns that are of string type. This function can retrieve the part of the string depending on the starting point that we have mentioned. The number of characters that we want to retrieve can be mentioned optionally which will lead to a resultant substring containing only that many numbers of characters while if not mentioned the remaining string starting from the starting point is retrieved.

Recommended Articles

We hope that this EDUCBA information on “SQL MID” was beneficial to you. You can view EDUCBA’s recommended articles for more information.

  1. SQL ORDER BY CASE
  2. SQL Clone Table
  3. SQL ORDER BY DATE
  4. SQL ORDER BY Ascending
All in One Excel VBA Bundle
500+ Hours of HD Videos
15 Learning Paths
120+ Courses
Verifiable Certificate of Completion
Lifetime Access
Financial Analyst Masters Training Program
1000+ Hours of HD Videos
43 Learning Paths
250+ Courses
Verifiable Certificate of Completion
Lifetime Access
All in One Data Science Bundle
1500+ Hour of HD Videos
80 Learning Paths
360+ Courses
Verifiable Certificate of Completion
Lifetime Access
All in One Software Development Bundle
3000+ Hours of HD Videos
149 Learning Paths
600+ Courses
Verifiable Certificate of Completion
Lifetime Access
Primary Sidebar
All in One Data Science Bundle1500+ Hour of HD Videos | 80 Learning Paths | 360+ Courses | Verifiable Certificate of Completion | Lifetime Access
Financial Analyst Masters Training Program1000+ Hours of HD Videos | 43 Learning Paths | 250+ Courses | Verifiable Certificate of Completion | Lifetime Access
Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Database Management
  • Machine Learning
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Data Science Course - All in One Bundle
  • Machine Learning Course
  • Hadoop Certification Training
  • Cloud Computing Training Course
  • R Programming Course
  • AWS Training Course
  • SAS Training Course

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2023 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more