How to truncate fields (newbie)

Hi all:

Suppose that I have a table with fields which can be rather long string
of characters. For instance, it can be a table called library concerning
the books from a library and the fields might be the title and the
author of the books. If I type

SELECT title, author FROM library;

this might be hard to read on screen. Is it possible to display, say,
only the first 20 characters of each field?

Best regards,

Jose Carlos Santos

José Carlos Santos wrote:
> Suppose that I have a table with fields which can be rather long string
> of characters. For instance, it can be a table called library concerning
> the books from a library and the fields might be the title and the
> author of the books. If I type
>
> SELECT title, author FROM library;
>
> this might be hard to read on screen. Is it possible to display, say,
> only the first 20 characters of each field?

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html

<snip>

LEFT(str,len)

Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.

mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
-> 'fooba'

</snip>

Greetings
Kai

--
This signature is left as an exercise for the reader.

On 01-05-2006 11:28, Kai Ruhnau wrote:

>> Suppose that I have a table with fields which can be rather long string
>> of characters. For instance, it can be a table called library concerning
>> the books from a library and the fields might be the title and the
>> author of the books. If I type
>>
>> SELECT title, author FROM library;
>>
>> this might be hard to read on screen. Is it possible to display, say,
>> only the first 20 characters of each field?
>
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html
>
> <snip>
>
> LEFT(str,len)
>
> Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.
>
> mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
> -> 'fooba'
>
> </snip>

Thanks for your reply, but I don't see how to use it in order to obtain
the effect that I mentioned: to get only the first 20 characters of each
field. For instance, it would be grat if

SELECT LEFT(title,20), LEFT(author,20) FROM library;

would do just that.

Best regards,

Jose Carlos Santos

On Mon, 01 May 2006 11:49:23 +0100, José Carlos Santos wrote:
> On 01-05-2006 11:28, Kai Ruhnau wrote:
>> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> LEFT(str,len)
>>
>> Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.
>>
>> mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
>> -> 'fooba'
>>
>> </snip>
>
> Thanks for your reply, but I don't see how to use it in order to obtain
> the effect that I mentioned: to get only the first 20 characters of each
> field. For instance, it would be grat if
>
> SELECT LEFT(title,20), LEFT(author,20) FROM library;
>
> would do just that.

Did you try that? What error did you get? Or did you get the results you
were hoping for?

--
80. If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best
troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he
gets closer and closer to my fortress.
--Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord

On 01-05-2006 17:00, Peter H. Coffin wrote:

>>> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> LEFT(str,len)
>>>
>>> Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.
>>>
>>> mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
>>> -> 'fooba'
>>>
>>> </snip>
>> Thanks for your reply, but I don't see how to use it in order to obtain
>> the effect that I mentioned: to get only the first 20 characters of each
>> field. For instance, it would be grat if
>>
>> SELECT LEFT(title,20), LEFT(author,20) FROM library;
>>
>> would do just that.
>
> Did you try that? What error did you get? Or did you get the results you
> were hoping for?

I thought I had tried and got an error... but now I tried again and it
worked just fine. Thanks for your help and sorry for wasting your time.

Best regards,

Jose Carlos Santos

On Mon, 01 May 2006 18:02:51 +0100, José Carlos Santos wrote:
> On 01-05-2006 17:00, Peter H. Coffin wrote:
>
>>>> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html
>>>>
>>>> <snip>
>>>>
>>>> LEFT(str,len)
>>>>
>>>> Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.
>>>>
>>>> mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
>>>> -> 'fooba'
>>>>
>>>> </snip>
>>> Thanks for your reply, but I don't see how to use it in order to obtain
>>> the effect that I mentioned: to get only the first 20 characters of each
>>> field. For instance, it would be grat if
>>>
>>> SELECT LEFT(title,20), LEFT(author,20) FROM library;
>>>
>>> would do just that.
>>
>> Did you try that? What error did you get? Or did you get the results you
>> were hoping for?
>
> I thought I had tried and got an error... but now I tried again and it
> worked just fine. Thanks for your help and sorry for wasting your time.

No wasted time; it just looked like exactly what I was expecting to see,
and it would have indicated a flaw in my understanding if it didn't
work. I would have liked to fix that flaw if I was wrong.

--
94. When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a
useless trinket of purely sentimental value.
--Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord