The Mid function extracts a certain number of characters from a text field. There are three parts to the Mid function:

• String: The string from which you wish to extract data. If the string is I Hate You and you want the word You, you could start with the word HATE for your string.

• Start: Where you want the start of the extraction to begin. For instance, if you wanted the word YOU from the string I Hate You, you could put your string as Hate and your start as 6 (the space between hate and you counts as one)

• Length: How many characters to return. If you wanted the word YOU, this would be 3.

Select Mid([Luke Breadslicer],6,5) as SampleColumn From Employees;

The above code would create a column named SampleColumn and display the word: Bread.

LEN(c)

The Len function counts the length of the string you specify.

Select Len([Luke Breadslicer]) as SampleColumn From Employees;

The above would create a column named SampleColumn and display the count of the characters in the string Luke Breadslicer, which in this case would be 16 (including the space).

Left(c,number_of_char)

The Left function returns a string, starting from the left and working its way to the right, of however many places you tell it. I will use the string Luke Breadslicer in the example below:

Select Left([Luke Breadslicer], 4) as SampleColumn;

Again, this creates a column named SampleColumn, and displays the string Luke.

Right(c,number_of_char)

As you can probably guess, the Right function works the in same way as the Left function, only from the opposite end. If you specify a number larger than the string, it returns the entire string.

Select Right([Luke], 3) as SampleColumn from Employees;

This would return a column named SampleColumn and display the data: Uke