MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

POSITION( )

Synopsis

POSITION(substring IN string)

This function returns the numeric starting point from the left of the first occurrence of the string given in the first argument of the function found in the string given in the second. MySQL does not search beyond this point. This function is similar to LOCATE( ).

SELECT name_last AS 'Name',
       POSITION('n' IN name_last) AS 'First n'
FROM teachers
WHERE teacher_id = '730522';
+--------+---------+
| Name   | First n |
+--------+---------+
| Vernon |       4 |
+--------+---------+

In this SQL statement, the last name of the teacher selected contains the letter “n” twice, but only the position of the first occurrence is returned.