limiting length of data pulled from table in mysql

[alecks]

I want to retrieve only a certain length of data from an entry in a mysql table, how would I do that?

 

ex. I only want the first 5 letters in the entry "example", so what should be returned to me is "examp".

 

Can I do this with only a mysql query or will I have to use some PHP functions to clip the string, and if it is the latter what functions do I have to use?

[magic2goodil]

SELECT LEFT(field,5) FROM table_name

[magic2goodil]

that help at all?

[Jessica]

You can also use PHP's substr()

[magic2goodil]

You can also use PHP's substr()

 

Yea, if you wanna trim down the data after it is pulled then you can do $original = substr($original, 0, 5);