Remove variable amount of characters from a string

Hello all.

I have a field in my table which contains a string that is made of of
a series of numbers, followed by an 'arrow' (->), followed by some
more numbers. It will look roughly like this :
123->4567
Both the series of numbers before and after the arrow are variable
between 1 and 9 numbers.
I'm looking for a way to extract the numbers to be able to use them in
a view (so it can either be a statement or a function).

Looking around, I saw mention of functions like 'LEFT' and 'RIGHT' or
'SUBSTR', but I only found mention of a being able to remove a fixed
amount of characters.

Does anyone have an idea of how to remove a variable amoung of
characters from the string ?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Anton

Mad Ant wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> I have a field in my table which contains a string that is made of of
> a series of numbers, followed by an 'arrow' (->), followed by some
> more numbers. It will look roughly like this :
> 123->4567

As you have the '->', then you can always use a function to locate where it's
placed and that way you can know how long the number on the left side is

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...ction_position

As you now easily can determine the length of the string you want, you can use
SUBSTR() without any trouble.


If you want to make it even simpler, you can use

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...ubstring-index

--

//Aho

On Jun 22, 11:43 am, "J.O. Aho" <u...@example.net> wrote:
> Mad Ant wrote:
> > Hello all.
>
> > I have a field in my table which contains a string that is made of of
> > a series of numbers, followed by an 'arrow' (->), followed by some
> > more numbers. It will look roughly like this :
> > 123->4567
>
> As you have the '->', then you can always use a function to locate where it's
> placed and that way you can know how long the number on the left side is
>
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/....html#function...
>
> As you now easily can determine the length of the string you want, you can use
> SUBSTR() without any trouble.
>
> If you want to make it even simpler, you can use
>
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/....html#function...
>
> --
>
> //Aho

The SUBSTRING_INDEX function is perfect. Thanks loads.

Anton