Oracle/PLSQL: Substr Function

In Oracle/PLSQL, the substr functions allows you to extract a substring from a string.

Syntax

The syntax for the substr function is:

substr( string, start_position, [ length ] )

string is the source string.

start_position is the position for extraction. The first position in the string is always 1.

length is optional. It is the number of characters to extract. If this parameter is omitted, substr will return the entire string.

Note

If start_position is 0, then substr treats start_position as 1 (ie: the first position in the string).

If start_position is a positive number, then substr starts from the beginning of the string.

If start_position is a negative number, then substr starts from the end of the string and counts backwards.

If length is a negative number, then substr will return a NULL value.

Applies To

• Oracle 11g, Oracle 10g, Oracle 9i, Oracle 8i

For Example

substr('This is a test', 6, 2)	would return 'is'
substr('This is a test', 6)	would return 'is a test'
substr('TechOnTheNet', 1, 4)	would return 'Tech'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -3, 3)	would return 'Net'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -6, 3)	would return 'The'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -8, 2)	would return 'On'